With Article 370, Nehru kept Kashmir on the boil, says Shah

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New Delhi, October 13

Union Home Minister Amit Shah today blamed India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for allegedly inserting Article 370 in the Constitution that kept Kashmir “on the boil” for over 70 years after Independence.

The Home Minister credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for solving the Kashmir issue by removing the special status accorded to erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking at an event in Zanzarka (Gujarat) from where he flagged off the ruling BJP’s ‘Gaurav Yatra’, Shah said the Congress used to taunt his party over the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, but work on it was now in progress. “Due to Jawaharlal Nehru’s mistake of inserting Article 370, Kashmir was in a mess. Prime Minister Narendra Modi removed it in one stroke and completed the integration of Kashmir with the country,” he said.

Addressing an event earlier this week in Gujarat, PM Modi had also blamed Nehru for issues plaguing Kashmir.

Speaking on the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Shah said the Congress used to mock the BJP with slogans like ‘Mandir wahi banayenge, par tithi nahi batayenge’ (the temple will be built but can’t say when). “But the dates were declared, the ground-breaking ceremony was completed and a grand temple is coming up at the promised place,” he said.

The BJP has planned five yatras, each taking place over eight to nine days, to cover 144 constituencies in the state where the Assembly elections are likely to be held by the year-end.