Shiv Sena on Monday took on the BJP over the recent decision of permitting people across the Country to buy land in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and said blaming former Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru or Congress for complicating the Kashmir issue was “propaganda” to some extent.
According to Kashmir News Service (KNS) monitoring, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in his column written in party’s mouthpiece Saamna, while referring to the Union Government’s decision of permitting to buy land in J&K, said that five days ago, the police stopped the youths who had gone to Srinagar’s Lal Chowk to hoist tricolor. “If we can’t hoist our national flag on that land, then what is the fun to invite countrymen for buying land in Jammu and Kashmir”, Raut asked.
Raut, who is also Sena’s spokesperson said that Nehru did his best to resolve the Kashmir issue and maintain peace. “It is propaganda to some extent that Pandit Nehru or Congress complicated the Kashmir issue. Nehru did experiments to resolve the Kashmir issue and maintain peace. Similar experiments were made by former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee”, he said.
The Sena MP said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah also did experience while forming a coalition with Mehbooba led PDP in J&K. “This too should be seen as an experiment for maintaining peace”, he said and maintained that Lady Mufti should be arrested for her remarks that the national flag would not be allowed to hoist in Kashmir until Article 370 is restored.
Lashing out at BJP on the issue of return and rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits, Sena leader said that while 40,000 Kashmiri Pandits fled the valley, there was a “propaganda” that Pandits would be able to return home easily after the abrogation of Article 370.
“No Kashmiri Pandit has yet been able to return to the Kashmir valley despite over a year of annulment of special status has been passed”, Raut added.