India's PM Modi slams Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti over Article 370

NEW DELHI (The Statesman/ANN) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday slammed opposition leaders including Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti at an election rally at Kathua in Jammu-Kashmir over their remarks on Article 370 and Article 35A.

The PM said that National Conference, Congress and PDP have exposed “their real intentions” by issuing threats of separating from the country if the two Constitutional guarantees are abrogated.

“You have seen in the last few days how the National Conference, Congress and PDP have exposed their real intentions. The thing they had been working for years clandestinely has now come out in the open,” the PM told a massive gathering of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters.

The PM said that his party’s founder, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, rejected this “concept of one country, two constitutions, two premiers and two symbols”.

“This is BJP’s commitment and this Chowkidar will always been firm on this stand,” the PM said as the crowd chanted ‘Modi-Modi’.

Recently, both PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and NC leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah had said that if the two Articles are abrogated, the state will get “freedom” from India.

“They [the BJP] talk of abrogating Article 370. If you do that, the accession will also not stand. I swear by Allah, I think this is the wish of almighty, we will get freedom from them,” Farooq Abdullah had said at an election rally in Srinagar earlier this month.

Omar Abdullah had recently called for restoring a separate post of Prime Minister of Jammu-Kashmir.

The BJP, in its election manifesto, reiterated its intent of abrogating Article 370 and annulling Article 35A of the Constitution.

Accusing the Abdullahs and Muftis of destroying lives of three generations of J-K, the PM said that even if they “bring their entire clan into field and abuse him, they won’t be able to divide this nation”.

At the rally today, the PM also slammed the Congress for ignoring the plight of Kashmiri Pandits because they were more worried about their vote-bank.

“Because of Congress, my Kashmiri Pandit brothers and sisters had to leave their homes. The Congress ignored their plight because of vote bank politics,” the PM said.

“I would like to ask Congress, who would do justice when they did injustice for 60 years? Will Congress ever be able to provide justice to Kashmiri Pandits? Will they be able to provide justice to those massacred in 1984 riots?” he added.

Praising the people of Baramulla and Jammu who came out in large numbers to vote in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections, the PM said that they have given a “befitting reply to the terrorist leaders, opportunists and people in ‘mahamilawat’”.

“You have proven the strength of democracy in India, in the first phase of elections. By coming out to vote in huge numbers in Baramulla and Jammu, you have given a befitting reply to the terrorist leaders, opportunists & people in ‘mahamilawat’,” he said.

Kathua is a Dogra-dominated Hindu-majority area in the southernmost tip of Jammu-Kashmir bordering Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

Besides Kathua, the PM will also be addressing rallies at Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh and Moradabad.

Source(s)

  • PM Modi slams Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti over Article 370

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