NEW DELHI: Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said in Parliament that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) belongs to India and that nobody can snatch it. After moving the J&K Reservation (amendment) Bill, 2023 and the J&K Reorganisation (amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Rajya Sabha, which was passed in the House, Shah said 23 seats have been reserved for PoK.
Reiterating his government’s commitment to statehood, Shah said, “I have already promised that statehood of Jammu and Kashmir will be restored at an appropriate time. Earlier, there were 37 seats in Jammu, after the new delimitation commission’s report, there are 43 seats. There were 46 eats in Kashmir, now there are 47 and in PoK, 24 seats have been reserved since PoK belongs to us ours,” he asserted while speaking on the Bills.
Taking a swipe at Jawaharlal Nehru, Shah said that no one has the right to give away a section of India’s land to “show the big heart.” Taking a potshot at Congress, he quoted Nehru to say: “If there was no untimely ceasefire, Pakistan would not have occupied Kashmir today. Our Army was winning, they were running away. If Nehru had stayed on for two more days, the entire PoK would have come under Tiranga (tricolour).”
The Home Minister said that “everyone knows that the accession of Kashmir to India was delayed because there was a demand to give special status to Sheikh Abdullah.” He informed the House while replying to a debate on Bills that earlier there were 83 seats in J&K, which has now been increased to 90.
Quoting data, he said that 42,000 people have lost their lives. “It was not about religious identity, whether they were Hindu or Muslim. States like Bihar, Gujarat and UP have larger Muslim populations than in Kashmir. But these states never witnessed the situation. But separation flourished in J&K just because of Article 370,” he said.
“I would like to ask a question to those who adhere to Nehru’s philosophy: If Article 370 was extremely important, why did Nehru himself use the term ‘temporary’? Everyone who says Article 370 is permanent is insulting the Constitution,” Shah said.
Reading out a quotaton of former Prime Minister Nehru, he said,“One thing is clear and known to everyone now: had there not been an untimely ceasefire, there would not have been PoK today.” He cited a reference in which Nehru had admitted that the untimely ceasefire was his mistake.