New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday hurled 10 questions at the Congress over the grand old party’s pre-poll alliance with the National Conference for next month’s three-phase Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, saying the Rahul Gandhi-led party has exposed its ulterior motives by allying with the Abdullah family.
In a post on X, the Home Minister said, “The Congress party, 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’ for the Jammu and Kashmir elections.”
Following his meeting with Rahul Gandhi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge in Srinagar on Thursday, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah confirmed a pre-poll alliance between the two parties.
“An alliance on all 90 Assembly seats between the two parties has been formed. Paperwork to be finalised by tonight,” Abdullah had said.
In his post, Amit Shah said given the promises made in the National Conference’s manifesto, he has 10 questions for the Congress and Rahul Gandhi.
Here are the 10 questions:
* 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?
The National Conference, which released its manifesto for the upcoming elections on Monday, has pledged to push for an India-Pakistan dialogue on Kashmir, introduce laws to protect jobs and land, seek the release of political prisoners, and review the cases of employees terminated over the past five years.
Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases – on September 18, September 25, and on October 1. The results will be announced on October 4.
IANS
