Politics

Removal of Art 35-A in BJP’s manifesto since 1950, will happen by 2020, says Amit Shah

BJP President Amit Shah has said that that removing Article 35-A has been in the BJP manifesto since 1950 and it will happen by 2020.

According to a report by the Quint, Shah made the comments during the News18 Agenda India Summit.

“It has not happened till now as we do not have a majority in Rajya Sabha, but I believe it will happen by 2020. Removing Article 35A has been in our manifesto since 1950, it is our commitment to the people of the country,” Shah said.

Earlier, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely said that the Article 35-A is “constitutionally vulnerable”and has denied JK  a booming economy.

His comments created a stir in the valley and a strong reaction from the local unionists. PDP Chief Mhebooba Mufti said that if the special status of the state is altered with, then the relationship between JK and India will have to be renegotiated with new conditions.

While reacting to Jaitley’s statement, National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah said that it was militancy which damaged the state not it’s special status.

Earlier, PDP’s Naeem Akhtar while reacting to the statement Arun Jaitely said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was trying to convert the constitutional relationship between Jammu and Kashmir and the Union of India into an “occupation”.

Speaking about militancy, Shah claimed that the BJP has been able to curb militant funding and “radicalisation”.

He said that the BJP government has banned organisations and plugged funding to curb militancy in Kashmir. Shah said that the maximum number of militants have been killed during the BJP rule. “…and we will continue to do so. Earlier, there were talks of fake Hindu terror…now, the world talks about the terror that emanates from Pakistan,” he said.

Talking about the controversy on the death toll in the after math of the Balakot air strikes on the other side of the border, Shah said that he does not prefer to watch foreign media and only quoted the figures, about the death toll, of the national media.

“I quoted the Balakot figures from what I saw on our media channels…I did not watch or refer to foreign media reports,” Shah said.

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