New Delhi, Dec 28 : Does Rahul Gandhi want to vitiate
the atmosphere in Kashmir, Union minister Anurag
Thakur asked on Wednesday about the Congress'
plans to unfurl the tricolour in the Valley and stressed
that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir has improved
significantly under the Modi government.
An estimated 1.6 crore tourists have visited Jammu
and Kashmir in one year, which is a record in itself,
the minister told reporters.
“Now tourists can visit every corner of Jammu and
Kashmir. This shows that the situation has improved
in Jammu and Kashmir. There are no stone pelting
incidents. Does Rahul Gandhi want to go there to spoil
the atmosphere?”
“Today, anyone can unfurl the tricolour in any part of
Jammu and Kashmir because the Narendra Modi
government has ended Article 370 and Article 35A in
J&K,” he added. Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra, which
started in Kanyakumari in September, is scheduled to
end in Kashmir next month.
Thakur reminded him of the Ekta Yatra undertaken in
1992 by then BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi and
Narendra Modi, who had unfurled the national tricolour
at Lal Chowk in Srinagar.
“There was a lot of opposition back then to the yatra.
There were terrorist attacks, firing incidents. This was
because there was a Congress government,” he said.
The BJP leader also recalled the Tiranga Yatra
undertaken by him as president of the Bhartiya Janata
Yuva Morcha in 2011.
“The then leaders of opposition in the Lok Sabha and
Rajya Sabha – Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley — and
myself were jailed as the Congress-National
Conference government had opposed the Tiranga
Yatra,” Thakur said.
“Things were difficult back then when Article 370 and
35A were still in force,” he said, adding that the
situation in the Kashmir Valley had improved
significantly under the Modi government.
