Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday slammed the Congress over its alliance with the National Conference for next month’s Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections. In a scathing post on X, Shah claimed that the Congress, which “has repeatedly risked the nation’s unity and security to satiate its greed for power, has once again exposed its ulterior motives by allying with the Abdullah family’s National Conference”.
He also questioned the Congress over promises made by the National Conference in its manifesto, including a promise to encourage dialogue between with Pakistan and restoration of the J&K flag.
The National Conference has said it would “strive to restore 370 – 35A (referring to Article 370 and Article 35A, which guaranteed special status to J&K and special rights to ‘permanent residents’ of J&K) and statehood as prior to August 2019”.
Shah shared 10 questions for the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, who was in Srinagar Thursday and claimed “blood” ties with the people of J&K.
- Does the Congress support the National Conference’s promise of a separate flag for Jammu and Kashmir?
- Do Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party support the JKNC’s decision to restore Article 370 and 35A, and thereby push Jammu and Kashmir back into an era of unrest and terrorism?
- Does the Congress support promoting separatism again by engaging in dialogue with Pakistan instead of Kashmir’s youth?
- Do the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi support the National Conference’s decision to start ‘LoC Trade’ with Pakistan, thereby nurturing terrorism and its ecosystem across the border?
- Does Congress support reinstating relatives of those involved in terrorism and stone-pelting into government jobs, thereby bringing back terrorism, extremism, and the era of strikes?
- The alliance has exposed the Congress party’s anti-reservation stance. Does Congress support the JKNC’s promise to end reservations for Dalits, Gujjars, Bakarwals, and Pahadi communities, thereby inflicting injustice upon them?
- Does the Congress want ‘Shankaracharya Hill,’ to be known as ‘Takht-e-Suleiman,’ and ‘Hari Hill’ as ‘Koh-e-Maran’?
- Does the Congress support the politics of pushing Jammu and Kashmir’s economy back into corruption and handing it over to selected Pakistan-supported families?
- Does the Congress party support the JKNC’s politics of discrimination between Jammu and the Valley?
- Do the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi support the JKNC’s divisive politics of granting autonomy to Kashmir?
National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah Friday said that seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress has been finalised for a majority of assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir.
Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases — September 18, September 25 and October 1. The counting of votes will be held on October 4.
