Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has attacked the Centre over its massive outreach programme in Jammu and Kashmir and caught in the crosshairs were five Union ministers visiting the newly-created Union territory.
A team of 36 Union ministers are in Jammu and Kashmir from January 18 to attend government functions in different parts of the Union territory nearly six months after Article 370 of the Constitutional was scrapped in August last year.
And the five ministers who will travel to three districts of Kashmir from Tuesday were specifically on the target of the Congress leader known for making controversial statements.
“They are sending 36 Union ministers to Jammu and Kashmir. But look at these cowards, 31 are going to Jammu and only five to Kashmir,” Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Monday, according to news agency ANI.
He was addressing a gathering in Kerala’s Malappuram on the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
“And who are they going to talk in Kashmir? To the former chief ministers? They can’t. They are all in jail. Farooq Abdullah is in jail. Omar Abdullah is in jail. Mehbooba (Mufti) is in jail. Whom are they going to talk to?” Aiyar asked.
Union communications, electronics and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, minister of state for defence Shripad Naik and minister of state for home affairs G Kishan Reddy are among the five who will attend eight government and public programmes for four days.
The office-bearers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have said that most of these programmes will be held to make people aware about Centre’s developmental schemes, initiated in J&K after the revocation of Article 370.
Polls, numbers
Aiyar also commented on the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A in Jammu and Kashmir as well as the bifurcation of the erstwhile state.
“They are trying to create a political class. Political class grows from among the people. You cannot have a BJP that doesn’t have a single vote in the Valley coming up,” he said.
“Yes, there are traitors like the ones we are seeing now, but then in every society, there are traitors. These are not representatives of the people, if they were, they would have been elected many-many years ago…” the former lawmaker said.
“How many elections we have had in J-K? Some of these people are those who were elected and have now decided to betray the cause for which they stood,” he said.
Mani Shankar Aiyar also referred to the majority of the BJP in the Lok Sabha and said the ruling party was misusing the numbers.
“Immediately… these arrogant people, it just went to their heads. They said this is the golden opportunity. We are never going to get 303 seats again. Let us push through all the anti-Muslim legislation that we have in mind,” he alleged.
He also commented on the protests in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh.
“And why are they so frightened of going to Shaheen Bagh? For 34 days, they have been sitting there protesting against this attempt to divide India once again on religious grounds,” the Congress leader said.
Aiyar had waded into controversy while visiting Shaheen Bagh last week to express solidarity with those protesting against the CAA. He had addressed the protestors and made a veiled reference at the government, equating it to killers.
The BJP had demanded an apology from the Congress party for his remarks.
