SRINAGAR/BANIHAL: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday, while reiterating India's stand on Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), said that the territory's people will soon ask for reunification with India. Mr Singh also said that India is ready to start dialogue with Pakistan if it stops terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.
At the rally in the highway town of Ramban, 136 km south of Srinagar, without naming the Opposition parties, Mr Singh said, "Some people want us to talk with Pakistan. I want to tell them... Pakistan should stop taking support of terrorism."
"Who would not like to improve relations with neighbouring countries? Because I know the reality that you can change a friend but not your neighbour. We want improved relations with Pakistan, but first of all they should stop terrorism," he told the well-attended gathering here.
The defence minister said when Pakistan stops sponsoring terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, India will start dialogue with them.
Referring to PoJK at the BJP election rally, Mr Singh said, “In Pakistan, they are known and treated as foreigners. We consider them our own flesh and blood. They are as good Indian citizens as any of us are. I'm sure they will soon ask for a reunion with their fellow Indians."
In June this year, the Pakistani government had told the Islamabad high court (IHC), which was hearing the kidnapping case of Kashmiri poet and journalist Ahmed Farhad Shah, that "Azad Jammu and Kashmir" (the official name of the held territory) is a “foreign territory”.
After being asked by Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani of IHC, why Mr Shah could not be presented to the court, Pakistan’s additional attorney-general had argued that it could not be done as he was in police custody in a "foreign territory" with its own constitution and its own court. He also told the court that the judgments of Pakistani courts in PoJK appear as “judgments of foreign courts”.
Referring to Pakistan's additional attorney general's assertion in the IHC, Mr Singh said, "The Pakistani government has described the PoJK people as foreigners. I want to tell them that the government of India firmly believes that they are Indian citizens. Time is not far when people of PoJK will themselves come forward and express their desire to be part of India physically".
The defence minister said the government of India is committed to retrieving PoJK. He added that the Indian Parliament had in 1994 passed a resolution wherein it was unanimously accepted by all parties that Pakistan has to vacate the areas of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir that are under its illegal occupation.
Promising to make J&K a model welfare state in the next 10 years if the BJP is voted to power, Mr Singh asked people of the Union territory to vote for its candidates wholeheartedly in the Assembly elections being held in three phases from September 18. Prime Minister Narendera Modi is scheduled to visit Jammu on September 14 to address multiple election rallies being organised by the BJP, the party sources said.
"It will be a historic election as not only the people of entire India are keenly watching it but outside the country too a lot of interesting is being shown," he said, adding, “I was recently in the USA and the Indian expatriates there asked me what is going to be these elections like and what will be the fate of the contestants... I categorically told them that there will be a BJP government in J&K.”
Mr Singh further stated: "The people across the globe are watching the J&K elections. The people here in J&K must give the BJP a chance to serve them for the next 10 years. You will see a new J&K unfolding if the BJP comes to power here."
Without naming PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, the defence minister said that the former chief minister had threatened that the entire J&K will be on fire if Article 370 is touched. “We revoked it and not a single bullet was fired. Today, a peaceful atmosphere is prevailing in the entire J&K,” he said.
Endorsing his party colleague and Union home minister Amit Shah's recent statement on the issue, Mr Singh said that Articles 370 and 35A have been consigned to history and no power on earth can restore these in the Indian Constitution as long as the BJP is there.
In an obvious reference to the National Conference's (NC) promise to work towards holding dialogue with Pakistan on Kashmir, the Union minister said that a delegation of the Indian Parliamentarian was sent to Kashmir to talk to separatist amalgam Hurriyat Conference, but its leaders closed their doors on them.
Referring to NC leader and former chief minister Omar Abdullah's assertion that Parliament attack convict Muhammad Afzal Guru's execution did not serve any useful purpose, the defence minister asked, “What was India supposed to do with him (Guru) then if he was not to be hanged?"
Mr Singh also said that apart from ensuring peace is strengthened in J&K and the Union territory witnesses further development, the BJP, if voted to power, will ensure the safe and dignified return of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley.
