‘Cong, Pak have same agenda’: Shah on Pakistan minister’s Article 370 remark

Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday strongly reacted to Pakistan’s defence minister Khwaja Asif’s remark that Article 370 can make a comeback in Jammu and Kashmir if the National Conference and Congress form a government in the erstwhile state, saying the alliance and India’s estranged neighbour have the same intentions and agendas.
“Pakistan’s Defence Minister’s statement about Congress and JKNC’s support on Article 370 and 35A has once again exposed Congress. This statement has once again made it clear that Congress and Pakistan have the same intentions and agenda,” Amit Shah wrote on X in Hindi.
Amit Shah said Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had been siding with every anti-India force over the past few years, hurting the sentiments of the countrymen.
“Be it asking for proof of air strikes and surgical strikes or saying objectionable things about the Indian Army, the tune of Rahul Gandhi’s Congress Party and Pakistan has always been the same and Congress has always been hand in glove with anti-national forces,” Shah added.
He said the Congress and Pakistan forget that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is at the Centre.
Speaking to senior journalist Hamid Mir in a show called Capital Talk, Khwaja Asif claimed Pakistan and the National Conference-Congress alliance are on the same page on the restoration of Article 370 and 35A in Jammu and Kashmir. He said their demands were the same.
“I think it is possible. Currently, the National Conference and Congress have very big importance over there. The population of the valley has been motivated a lot on this issue and I believe, there is a chance that the Conference (National Conference) will come to power. They have made this an election issue that the status of Jammu and Kashmir should be restored,” Asif said.
BJP leader Amit Malviya said Rahul Gandhi and Congress were always seen on the side of India’s enemies.
“Pakistan, a terrorist state, endorses Congress and National Conference’s position on Kashmir. Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, on Hamid Mir’s Capital Talk on Geo News, says, “Pakistan and National Conference-Congress alliance are on the same page in Jammu & Kashmir to restore Article 370 and 35A”. How is it that, from Pannun to Pakistan, Rahul Gandhi and his Congress, are always seen on the side of those inimical to India’s interest?” he wrote on X.
The controversy erupted amid the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections.
In 2019, the Narendra Modi government scrapped Article 370, which used to accord a special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The government also divided the state into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Pakistan had opposed the move. India, however, called the mega decisions India’s internal matter.
With inputs from PTI, ANI