‘India will not talk to Pakistan on Kashmir’: Amit Shah as elections set to resume in J&K
Addressing his first public rally in the Valley since the abrogation of Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Union Home Minister Amit Shah Wednesday ruled out any dialogue with Pakistan, even as he went all out to target the “three families that ruled Kashmir for seventy years”.
Addressing a rally here, Shah asked whether terrorism has ever benefited anyone as the menace has claimed 42,000 lives since the 1990s in J and K.
He also blamed the families of the Abdullahs (National Conference), Muftis (PDP) and Nehru-Gandhi (Congress) for the alleged underdevelopment of Jammu and Kashmir as they ruled the erstwhile state most of the time since the country’s independence in 1947.
“Mehbooba Mufti and Farooq Abdullah built four medical colleges. We have built nine since 2014. We have built one lakh houses since 2014. We have ensured, in the last three years, that all villages in Kashmir (including villages in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) have electricity connection,” Amit Shah said.
A day earlier, Home Minister Amit Shah declared in Rajouri that the Pahari community would soon get reservations in education and jobs as Scheduled Tribe (ST). In Baraullah, Amit Shah said the reservation was not possible earlier due to Article 370.
On elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the Union minister said as soon as the work of compiling the voters’ list is completed, elections will be held with full transparency.