Uprooted 370 to make Kashmir crown of India: Amit Shah

Bhubaneswar, Feb 28: Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched a scathing attack on the opposition, accusing them of inciting violence by spreading misinformation on the Citizenship Amendment Act while saying that it was the Modi government that “uprooted” Article 370 and “integrate” Kashmir with the rest of India.
Addressing a rally of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar, Shah said the opposition parties, including Congress, Lefts, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, were claiming that the Muslims would lost their citizenship if the CAA was implemented.
“Why is opposition lying about the CAA? I here again repeat that citizenship of any Muslim or minority will not be taken away through CAA, because it is an Act to give citizenship not to take it away,” Shah asserted.
Shah said the Narendra Modi government addressed several intractable issues that had festered for 70 years, including repeal of provisions of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and prevented its integration with the rest of the country.
“You tell me. Article 370 should have been abrogated or not?” he repeatedly asked the crowd who responded with a roaring yes.
“By your mandate, we uprooted Article 370 and made Kashmir the crown of India,” he said.
The Home Minister’s comments came when the northeast areas of Delhi, which witnessed large-scale violence and riots, are gradually limping back to normalcy.
He said people should come out and ask those fomenting trouble to explain which clause of the CAA talked about snatching citizenship of people.
Attacking Congress over Ram temple, Shah said: “Congress used to dodge the question of Ram temple in the Supreme Court. Modi ji opened gates for construction of Ram temple by setting up a trust. In some time, a Ram temple will be constructed at the place where the Lord was born.”
The minister said that the Congress government allocated Rs 89,000 to Odisha in the 13th Finance commission and NDA government allocated over Rs 2 lakh crore to Odisha in 14th Finance Commission. “We will try to develop Odisha like Gujarat,” he said.
Shah highlighted BJP’s improved performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Odisha and said: “I came to Odisha after Lok Sabha elections. I want to thank people that they have given eight seats to BJP. Instead of 21 per cent share in the previous election, BJP got 38.4 votes in 2019. We got 91 lakh votes and Naveen babu got 1.1 crore vote. We only have to make one jump to form BJP government in Odisha.”
“For the first time in such a journey, the Congress party came down from the main opposition party for the first time and our BJP worker has today become the voice of the people of Odisha, sitting in the Assembly as the Leader of the Opposition,” he said. The minister continued: “In Assembly, we are moving ahead. We have taken a lead in 14,000 booths out of 37,000. Modi government has opened gates of development in every sector in Odisha.” (With inputs from ANI)