The Narendra Modi government has made the required difference in the overall security scenario of Jammu and Kashmir, and now Congress’ Sushil Kumar Shinde, Rahul Gandhi or anybody else could roam around in the region freely without any fear, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said.
Referring to two different incidents, Shah, who was addressing an election rally in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ramban, said Shinde, the senior Congress leader serving as the Union Home Minister in the UPA government, feared for his life while visiting Lal Chowk and Dal Lake in Srinagar.
Shah was reacting to Shinde’s recent remark where the latter admitted that he used to be scared while in Kashmir even when he was handling the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“Before I became the Home Minister, I visited him (educationist Vijay Dhar). I used to ask him for advice. He advised me not to roam around but to visit Lal Chowk (in Srinagar), meet people and go around Dal Lake. That advice gave me publicity and people thought that here is a Home Minister who goes there without any fear, but who do I tell that I was scared?” Shinde was quoted as saying at the launch of his memoir in Delhi on September 10 in media reports.
“Sushil Kumar Shinde, who was the Home Minister during the Congress government, has just given a statement that at that time he was scared of coming to Lal Chowk. Shinde sahib, now come with your children, take a walk in Lal Chowk. Nobody will dare harm you,” Shah added reacting to the former union minister for home affairs.
Shah also took a jibe at Rahul Gandhi over his Jammu and Kashmir visit during his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra video of which was released recently wherein the Congress MP was seen coming out of an ice cream store in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk and riding a bike in Ladakh.
“We have made Kashmir safe. Today Rahul baba rides a bike in Kashmir and abuses Modi ji while eating ice cream at Lal Chowk. Rahul Baba, you are abusing Modi ji, but this was not possible in your government. Modi ji has buried terrorism to the depths,” Shah added.
The BJP-led NDA believes that abrogation of Article 370 has reduced militancy in the region.
