HYDERABAD: Union home minister Amit Shah said on Saturday India would take back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) if the BJP-led NDA returns to govt at the Centre under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Shah said leaders like Jammu and Kashmir ex-CM Farooq Abdullah and Congress senior politician Mani Shankar Aiyar were talking about showing respect to Pakistan because it’s a nuclear power. “Does not Kashmir belong to us? We will act decisively and take back PoK,” Shah said.
Shah’s remarks at an election rally in Chevella, Telangana, were in response to Aiyar’s statement that Pakistan has the nuclear bomb and therefore a cautious approach has to be adopted.
Shah said the late former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee had conducted the Pokhran-2 nuclear test. The first was conducted by Indira Gandhi’s govt in 1974.
The home minister also scoffed at Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy’s remarks that the surgical strikes on Pakistan “did not even kill a crow”. “PM Modi’s swift decision had resulted in terrorists in Pakistan getting wiped out in the surgical strikes,” he said.
Later in the day, he told reporters that after the BJP-led NDA forms govt at the Centre for a third time, it would make sure the 4% reservation for Muslims in Telangana is scrapped.
“The fact is that reservation for Muslims is affecting the reservation for other sections, so we will scrap them,” he said. He also said Congress and BRS were spreading canards that BJP was against reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs. “We have never said we will remove reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs,” he said in Hyderabad.
On the final day of campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections in Telangana, which goes to polls on May 13, Shah said, “Whichever party is in power, it is AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi who holds the steering wheel. Congress and BRS have outsourced him,” he said. Shah claimed that of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, BJP has an edge in 13 seats but would win 10 seats for sure.
Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.Sushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyde...
Read MoreSushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyderabad. He began his journalism career at the age of 20 in 1988. He is a gold medalist in journalism from the Department of Communication and Journalism, Arts College, Osmania University, Hyderabad from where he did his post-graduation from. He has been with The Times of India’s Hyderabad edition since its launch in 2000. He has also done an introductory course in film studies from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and also from the Central University of Kerala equipping himself with the knowledge of filmmaking for film criticism. He has authored four books. In his career spanning 34 years, he has worked for five newspapers and has also done television reporting. He was also a web journalist during internet’s infancy in the mid 1990s in India. He covers defence, politics, diaspora, innovation, administration, the film industry, Hyderabad city and Telangana state, and human interest stories. He is also a podcaster, blogger, does video reporting and makes documentaries.
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