Every inch of PoK belongs to India, no force can snatch it: Amit Shah

Khunti (Jharkhand):  Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday slammed the Congress for “raising question mark” on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and asserted that every inch of it belonged to India and no force can snatch it.

“Mani Shankar Aiyar is telling us to respect Pakistan as it possesses an atomic bomb. A few days ago, INDIA alliance leader Farooq Abdullah said do not talk about PoK as Pakistan has an atomic bomb. I want to tell the Congress and INDIA alliance that PoK belongs to India and no force can snatch it,” Shah said at an election rally in Jharkhand’s Khunti.

Hitting out at the Congress, he said, “I do not know what has happened to the Congress. A resolution was passed unanimously in Parliament that PoK is part of India. You (Congress) are now putting a question mark on PoK by talking about the atomic bomb. BJP’s stand is clear that every inch of PoK belongs to India and it will remain with India.”

Urging people to vote for the BJP, Shah said the JMM-led alliance in Jharkhand was neck-deep in corruption.

“JMM-led alliance indulged in Rs 300-crore land scam, Rs 1,000-crore mining scam, Rs 1,000-crore MNREGA scam Rs 40-crore liquor scam. We will not allow the JMM-led alliance to digest poor people’s money,” he said.

He accused JMM and Congress of doing “vote-bank politics”.

“Congress created obstacles in building Ram Mandir in Ayodhya for 70 years whereas PM Modi constructed the temple in 5 years…Rahul Baba did not come to Ram Mandir consecration as he was afraid of his ‘vote bank’,” he said.

“I want to ask Rahul Gandhi why the Congress failed to make any tribal President during its rule”, he said.

Earlier on Friday, Shah reiterated that elections in Jammu and Kashmir would be conducted as per Supreme Court schedule and the statehood will be decided after the assembly puts forth the request.

“We will hold the elections in Jammu and Kashmir as per the court dates. As far as statehood is concerned, we will decide after the assembly puts forth the request. I have said this many times in Parliament as well,” Shah said in an interview with a national newspaper.

Shah expressed confidence that the BJP-NDA would achieve its target of securing 400 seats in the ongoing election. He stated that the party is poised to win around 200 seats out of the 283 contested in the initial three phases alone

“It’s difficult to assess the third phase right away. I was busy with my election in this phase. But, I believe that by counting all three phases together, we should be in the range of 175-200 seats (of the 283 polled). So, yes it will be 400 paar in this election,” he said.

“We will gain in Punjab, may be symbolic, but we will make a good beginning. We will maintain our numbers in the Northeast. We will make significant gains in West Bengal, Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. We will also make gains in Uttar Pradesh. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala, besides increasing our vote share substantially, we will also win seats.”

Shah said If Congress says that they will bring personal laws in this country, then any ‘panth nirpeksh’ society should debate it. “I don’t use the word secular but in any ‘panth nirpeksh’ country, how can laws be implemented based on religion? Should the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) be there or not? If anyone says this discussion is on communal lines, then I say this is not on communal lines. Whatever was there on communal lines, we have been able to bring on the ‘panth nirpeksh’ line. Personal laws should not be there. The country should run on the constitution or not. In our constitution, there is no provision for reservations based on religion. Now, if any political party says we will make provisions for reservations based on religion, we do not agree with this. We have made this clear in front of the people,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)