Agencies
New Delhi, Feb 6: Slamming former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah for their remarks on abrogation of Article 370, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that Kashmir’s identity was buried on January 19, 1990, when Kashmiri Pandits started leaving the Valley due to militancy.
“Who made Kashmir only about land grabbing? Who made Kashmir’s identity only about bombs and guns? Can anyone forget that dark night of January? In reality, Kashmiri identity is closely linked with harmony,” he said.
Replying to a debate on Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address in Lok Sabha, Modi also slammed the state leadership of Jammu and Kashmir, criticising former CMs Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah for their remarks post the abrogation of Article 370.
“Omar Abdullah had said removing Article 370 would bring an earthquake that will separate Kashmir from India. Farooq Abdullah said if Article 370 is removed, there will be no one in the Valley to unfurl the Indian flag. Can any person devoted to the Indian Constitution ever accept this?” Modi said.
“Those who say such words, they do not trust the people of Kashmir. We trusted them, and now the region is developing at a fast pace,” he added.
“There were statements made by former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir that were unacceptable. These are leaders who don’t trust Kashmiri people that is why they used such language, but we trusted Kashmiris and abrogated Article 370,” the Prime Minister said.
Prime Minister said that the abrogation of Article 370 has led to the complete integration of Jammu & Kashmir with the rest of the country.
Narendra Modi was today replying in the Lok Sabha to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address.
Prime Minister described Jammu and Kashmir as the Crown of India and that the real identity of J&K is its Egalitarian attitude towards all faiths and its Sufi Tradition.
In his long reply, the Prime Minister dwelt at length the situation plaguing the region and said that the Article 370 of the Constitution was abrogated with full faith in people of J&K and that the development of the region is at a great speed.
He said the restrictions imposed on the region are being removed and that the Union Ministers are going to various parts of the UT and getting direct feedback from the people and that the Government would definitely act upon the feedback.
Prime Minister said that his Government is committed to working for the welfare of the people of J&K and for its all-round development.
Prime Minister said that Ladakh would be developed as a Carbon Neutral Union Territory.
Elaborating on his government’s achievements, the prime minister said the people of the country have seen his government’s work between 2014 and 2019 and gave a bigger mandate in 2019. “The people of India saw our work for five years. They once again blessed us, so that we work even faster,” he said.
He also attacked the Congress for its politics in the last seven decades, saying the party’s politics of last 70 years has been such that no Congress leader can be self-sufficient.
Modi said India can no longer wait for problems to remain unsolved, and, rightfully so. “That is why, our aim is speed and scale, determination and decisiveness, sensitivity and solutions”. “The people of India have not only changed the Sarkar (government). They want the ‘Sarokar’ (conduct) to be changed as well. If we had worked according to the old ways and thought processes: Article 370 would never have been history.
Muslim women would have kept suffering due to Triple Talaq,” he said. The prime minister said if his government worked as per the old ways, the Ram Janmabhoomi issue would have remained unsolved, Kartarpur Sahib corridor would not be a reality, there would be no India-Bangladesh land agreement.
Modi said the Congress did not remember to save the Constitution during Emergency and the ‘Save Constitution’ mantra is must “for those who dismissed several state governments”. Without naming Rahul Gandhi, Modi said, “I heard an Opposition MP saying- we will beat Modi with sticks in 6 months. I have also decided I will do more ‘Surya Namaskar’.
This will make my back even stronger to face abuses. In any case, I have been abused so much for the last 2 decades that their negativity hardly matters”. On the economy, the prime minister said the government has kept the fiscal deficit in check, price rise is also under check and there is macro-economic stability.
Modi said the agriculture budget, which was earlier Rs 27,000 crore, has now been increased by five times to about Rs 1.5 lakh crore. The agriculture budget has risen 5 times during the tenure of the NDA Government. The prime minister said driven by politics, some states are not allowing farmers to benefit from the PM-Kisan Scheme.
“I appeal to them- let there be no politics in farmer welfare. We all have to work together for the prosperity of farmers of India,” he said. He said the PM-KISAN Samman Yojana is transforming the lives of many farmers. Several farmers have benefited due to this. In this scheme there are no middlemen and no extra file work.
Modi said the FDI in April-Sept 2018 stood at USD 22 billion, while in April-Sept 2019 it increased to USD 26 billion. This reflects confidence of foreign investors in India, he said. Referring to the Northeast, Modi said for years, distance became a reason to ignore this region. Things have changed now and the region is becoming a growth engine as great work has been done in so many sectors and ministers and officials are regularly visiting the Northeast.
“Despite many efforts, the issue was unsolved for years. Whatever was done earlier was for meeting political ends, remained confined to papers.
“The Bodo Accord signed now is special because it has brought all stakeholders together and we are moving towards a more peaceful era,” he said. At the beginning of his speech, some Congress MPs raised slogans hailing Mahatma Gandhi with party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury saying, “it is just a trailer”.
At this Modi shot back: “Mahatma Gandhi may be trailer for you, but he is life for us”.
‘J&K enjoying life post Art 370’
Press Trust of India
New Delhi, Feb 6: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reiterated that the situation in J&K has improved dramatically after abrogation of Article 370 and formation of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
He said the entire nation has seen the detailed discussions on Jammu and Kashmir, adding that an anti-corruption bureau has been established for the first time after its special status was scrapped.
Replying to the debate in Rajya Sabha on a motion thanking the president for his address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament, he said for the first time in decades, people of Jammu and Kashmir got benefits of reservation.
There were BDC polls, RERA came into being there, he said, adding that for the first time, Jammu and Kashmir got a comprehensive start-up, trade and logistics policy.
For the first time, an anti-corruption bureau was set up in J&K, he said.
He attacked the Opposition for not offering any “constructive suggestion” during the debate, saying they made a “virtue out of stagnation”.
The prime minister said there is “unprecedented peace in Northeast”, countering the Opposition charge of unrest in the region following an amendment to the citizenship law.
Modi quoted one member as saying that the decision to abrogate the special status for Jammu and Kashmir in August last year was taken without discussion.
“This observation is not correct. The entire nation has seen the detailed discussions on the subject. MPs have voted in favour of the decisions,” Modi said.
“People do not forget things easily. I want to remind the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha about the manner in which proceedings regarding the creation of Telangana took place when the house was locked and televised address stopped when the bill to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh was passed,” Modi added.
He called August 5 as the “black day” for those who encourage terrorism. It was on August 5 when the erstwhile J&K was split into two union territories and the contentious Article was removed.
‘CAA protest leading to anarchy’
Agencies
New Delhi, Feb 6: Hitting out at Pakistan as well as opposition parties for misleading Muslims on Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the Act will not harm “any Indian” as well as the “minority” and instigating such protests could lead to “anarchy”.
Addressing the Lok Sabha while speaking on the motion of thanks to President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to the joint session of Parliament on January 31 — day one of the Budget session — Modi rejected allegations of various political parties that the current government led by BJP wanted to make India a Hindu nation.
The Prime Minister said Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, had also used “Pakistan’s minority” word and in November 9, 1950, he had said that those who had come to India should be given citizenship and if needed there should be changes in the law. “Did Nehru want to make India a Hindu nation?”
“This Act will not harm any Indian citizen. It will not harm any minority,” Modi said in his over 100-minute speech.
The Prime Minister said that it is just “vote bank politics” and asked if Congress has forgotten the 1984 Sikh riots when “our Sikh brothers and sisters were set ablaze”.
“Did they not belong to a minority community? Why did they have to wait for over three decades for getting justice? Why did Congress give chief ministerial post to a person who was involved in Sikh riots? Do they have two different yardsticks for the term minority?”
Hitting out at the Congress, the Prime Minister said it is the “misfortune” of the country that it has found such an opposition which has drifted to a “wrong path”.
The Prime Minister said the Congress and its “ecosystem” is creating turmoil on CAA, a legislation which grants citizenship to six-non Muslim minorities — Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Jain, Christian and Buddhist which migrated to India on or before December 31, 2014 from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“They (opposition) have used full power to instil an imaginary fear in the minds of people against CAA. Pakistan also speaks the same language. Pakistan played every game to mislead Indian Muslims. But that country’s attempts have failed…A Muslim is only a Muslim for the Congress, but we see him as an Indian.”
The Prime Minister said that minorities in Pakistan are being harassed since the Partition. However, demonstrations are being instigated in India if “we try to give citizenship rights to those minorities through CAA”.
Mentioning that India can no longer wait for problems to remain unsolved even after 70 years of Independence, Modi stressed that the country deserves speedy growth with fine decisions and decisiveness.
Right to Internet not fundamental, country’s security equally important: Prasad
Press Trust of India
New Delhi, Feb 6: Misconception about the right to Internet being a fundamental right needs to be cleared, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in Rajya Sabha on Thursday, emphasising that the country’s security was equally important.
Communications, information technology, electronics and law and justice minister Prasad during the Question Hour said communication of ideas and views through Internet are part of fundamental right to speech and expressions.
“The Supreme Court…has clearly stated that no lawyer argued that right to Internet is a fundamental right…This kind of misconception needs to be corrected. What the Supreme Court has stated is that for communication of your ideas and views the use of Internet will also to be held a part of your fundamental right of speech and expression,” Prasad said in reply to a query.
Prasad said no one can deny abuse of Internet for spreading violence and terrorism, and Pakistan has been doing it in Kashmir and ISIS prospered because of Internet.
“While right of Internet is important, security of the country is equally important…. Can we deny (that) Internet…is abused by terrorists…for violence and there have been attempts to create unrest in Kashmir from across the border through Internet,” Prasad stressed.
He emphasised that the Constitution which provides rights lays equal stress on its regulation, saying “Use Internet but you cannot create violence…and weaken unity, integrity and security of nation.”
In reply to a supplementary question by Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House Ghulam Nabi Azad, Prasad said that having been a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, he had also been on the hit list of militants and was well aware of abuse of Internet.
Whether it is a BJP government or a non-BJP government, Internet has been restricted on several times on account of its abuse and “what the Supreme Court has done is they have said temporary suspension of rules must be periodically reviewed”, he said.
He said a committee at the Centre comprising the home secretary, the law secretary and the IT secretary reviews it periodically while there are committees in states too.
Prasad said law and order is a state subject and decisions are taken based on ground situation which are reviewed periodically.
“Once the Supreme Court itself has declared that the use of Internet to propagate one’s views and ideas will be held to be fundamental rights…I will like to flag…this will also be subject to reasonable restrictions…for public order, for security and integrity of India,” he said.
On Jammu and Kashmir, he said he had recently visited Kashmir and on demand of apple growers at Sopore, which produces 300 varieties and sends out 450 trucks daily, had initiated the process of making it an e-mandi.
“People in Kashmir are happy,” he said and added voice, SMS and landline services have been restored in Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, while Broadband functional in Jammu division.
“We have allowed it for white listed websites… there are 783 white-listed websites of government, banking, tourism, ecommerce, transportation, education,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
