Home Minister Amit Shah has hit out at the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, a group of parties that aims to restore the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
Taking to Twitter on Tuesday, Shah alleged the Gupkar “gang” wants “foreign forces to intervene in Jammu and Kashmir”. Shah also questioned whether Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul Gandhi, supported such aims. Shah tweeted, “The Gupkar Gang is going global! They want foreign forces to intervene in Jammu and Kashmir. The Gupkar Gang also insults India’s Tricolour. Do Sonia Ji and Rahul Ji support such moves of the Gupkar Gang ? They should make their stand crystal clear to the people of India.”
Shah declared the Gupkar Alliance wanted to take Jammu and Kashmir back to the “era of terror and turmoil”. “Congress and the Gupkar Gang want to take J&K back to the era of terror and turmoil. They want to take away rights of Dalits, women and tribals that we have ensured by removing Article 370. This is why they’re being rejected by the people everywhere.,” Shah tweeted.
Shah tweeted, “Jammu and Kashmir has been, is and will always remain an integral part of India. Indian people will no longer tolerate an unholy ‘global gathbandhan’ against our national interest. Either the Gupkar Gang swims along with the national mood or else the people will sink it.”
The reference to “foreign forces” appears to be related to comments made by National Conference patriarch Farooq Abdullah to a TV channel in October. Farooq Abdullah had then said, “Whatever they [China] are doing at LAC in Ladakh [is] all because of the abrogation of Article 370, which they never accepted. I am hopeful that with their support, Article 370 will be restored in J&K.”
The comments triggered criticism by the BJP.
The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the BJP on Monday said the Congress should come clean on whether it supports the “pro-China” statements of the NC and the “pro-Pakistan” stand of the PDP, and hit out at the opposition party for its “double-faced” approach on the issue.
“The Congress has adopted one stance in Jammu and another in Kashmir and has been befooling the gullible population,” Jammu and Kashmir BJP’s chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi said.
He said the parties in the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) are nothing but power hungry, which is very clear from the fact that they have so eagerly come to contest the District Development Council (DDC) polls, in spite of issuing statements earlier that they will not contest any election.