NEW DELHI: A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah underscored India’s claim over Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday challenged Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring back the PoK and Aksai Chin before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
He raised the issue while speaking in Lok Sabha during the discussion on the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Second Amendment) Bill, which was passed later. Earlier in the day, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai introduced the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Second Amendment) Bill and the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill in the LS.
On December 11, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud, in a landmark verdict, unanimously upheld the Centre’s August 5, 2019, decision to abrogate Article 370 provisions and directed restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir at the earliest and hold the assembly elections by September 30, 2024.
“Amit Shah says that we will reclaim the PoK, but what is happening today? The Pakistan-China Belt corridor is being constructed with a length of 3,000 km,” said Chowdhury. “You say that we will make someone representative there (in PoK). What we want to say is that you do it. You have said that we will take back Siachen, Ladakh… and what have you done in Ladakh? Aksai Chin and PoK are part of India. When will you reclaim the POK and Aksai Chin? They only talk big,” Chowdhury said.
He said in the House in 1993, there was an all party resolution to reclaim PoK. “Now China is making roads there. You don’t speak about them. We have fought three wars. Till now, nothing happened because we had an iron lady in the form of former PM Indira Gandhi,” he said. NCP MP Supriya Sule demanded that the Centre hold assembly polls in J&K and restore its statehood at the earliest.