NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday said that the new J&K bills on reservation and reorganization will restore the rights of those deprived in the Union Territory for 70 years.
Shah was speaking in the Rajya Sabha during a discussion on the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023. The bills were later passed by Rajya Sabha after the opposition parties staged a walkout. They were passed by Lok Sabha last week.
“Several questions were raised even the day before yesterday. In Lok Sabha, it was said that the Bill is pending and is being brought in haste. Supreme Court will do justice and we should wait for it. All these stands were not for justice but to halt the decisions taken by PM Modi,” Shah said in the upper house.
He said that the bill will raise the seats in Jammu to 37 from 43 while Kashmir will now have 47 seats from 46 earlier.
“24 seats have been reserved in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. I am saying this again Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir is ours and no one can take it from us,” Shah said, repeating the similar remark he made in Lok Sabha last week.
Speaking in the upper house, Shah assured the country that the beginning of a “new and developed Kashmir” that will be free from terrorism has been made under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“I want to assure the people of the country, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised from the ramparts of the Red Fort, that the youth of Kashmir will no longer carry guns or stones and will instead carry laptops.
“The beginning of building a ‘New Kashmir’ has been made which will be free from terrorism. The foundation of a ‘new and developed’ Kashmir has been laid and when India becomes developed, Kashmir will stand equally among the other states, where tourists from across the world would come,” he said in the Rajya Sabha.
“We are committed to providing justice to the people of Kashmir, its youth and children. We are sensitive towards them and not towards terrorists,” he also said while attacking the Congress.
Shah also criticised former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru yet again, claiming that J&K’s accession to India was delayed as one person was given this task.
“Had there been no untimely ceasefire in Kashmir, there would have been no PoK,” Shah said, adding that the “blunder” gave Pakistan a chance to attack the erstwhile state.
In Lok Sabha last week, Shah said that Nehru made two big mistakes due to which Kashmir had to suffer for many years.
In an apparent reference to the Nehru, Abdullah and Mufti families, Shah alleged that three families deprived the ST and poor people of Kashmir of their rights, as several laws were not implemented in Jammu and Kashmir earlier.
“They (Opposition) will not be able to see the change, there is a problem with their glasses. They are not ready to rectify their mistake…. But people do not care anymore about them. The entire country has understood that it was Nehru’s mistake,” Shah said.
He also attacked the Congress for being against the other backward classes, alleging that it was because of them that the OBCs did not get reservation under various schemes in Jammu and Kashmir, which the new bills have now ensured.
He also alleged that the Congress has always been opposed to OBCs and their rights as they opposed the Mandal Commission too.
“The Congress party has always opposed the other backward classes and their rights,” he said.
Shah also targeted the Congress and INDIA bloc over the huge recovery of cash during income tax raids on a company linked to a Congress MP from Jharkhand, wondering why he has not yet been suspended by the Congress.
He said the bank machines have also given up and the counting of notes has continued for more than five days.
