BJP can never resolve Kashmir crisis: Ghulam Nabi Azad

Hyderabad: Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Tuesday that the BJP can never solve the Kashmir issue. Notwithstanding, abrogation of Article 370, there have been no changes, he said and decried that the Modi administration has internationalised the issue by inviting members of Parliaments with right wing ideology from European Union but had barred Indian journalists, politicians and activists from entering the valley.

Addressing the media here Mr Azad said that despite being a former chief minister of the state, he had to approach the Supreme Court for permission to visit his native place. He was denied entry thrice. He said that even more diabolical was the Centre was not allowing envoys of countries that were neutral. He denounced claims by the administration that normalcy was restored in Kashmir.

He claimed that the pressure mounted by Congress and other Opposition parties had compelled the Centre not to sign the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). If India had signed, it would have sounded the death knell for indigenous trade besides serving as a dumping yard for China, he alleged.

Mr Azad opined that the Modi government had failed on every front and betrayed the sentiments of youth, farmers, traders and poor people. He said that a total of 25,000 bank frauds, involving Rs 1.75 lakh crore, were reported in the last six years. They belie whatever growth claims the government is making, he said.

The Centre had both failed to bring back black money stashed overseas and the much-trumpeted collection of Rs 1 lakh crore in corporate taxes, although it reduced the rate by half from 30 per cent.

It has made things worse for farmers by slapping five per cent tax on fertilisers, 12 per cent on tractors and agri equipment and 18 per cent on pesticides, Mr Azad charged.