Union Home Minister, Amit Shah said that if bullets are fired from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), those would be responded to by bullets, not dialogue.
Addressing a mammoth BJP campaign rally in the Mendhar area of Poonch district on Saturday, Shah said, “The days of cross-border firing are over. Pakistan is now afraid of PM Modi. There were times when the people in power in J&K were afraid of Pakistan.
“The situation has completely changed. If bullets are fired from across the LoC, we will respond with bullets, not with ‘boli (talks)’.”
Home Minister (HM) Shah said that he had come to Mendhar to appeal for the victory of the BJP candidate, Murtaza Khan.
“I live in Gujarat and I could never think that I could address people in Mendhar just 2 km away from the LoC. Our Gujjar, Bakarwal and Pahari brothers have always stood as soldiers of the country whenever there was a war with Pakistan after 1947.
“Today, I want to tell you from the mountains of Mendhar that the entire country is proud of you. I appeal to you to join hands with PM Narendra Modi to protect the country.
“This election will end the monopoly of three families of Abdullahs, Muftis and Gandhis. They have stopped democracy from taking root in J&K. If PM Modi had not come to power in 2014, there would be no Panchayat, BDC and DDC elections here.
“It is because of Narendra Modi and Murtaza Bhai that today 30,000 youth from here are working in different parts of the country,” HM Shah said.
“In the days of Farooq Abdullah and the Mufti family, 40,000 innocent people were killed. PM Modi decided to put an end to terrorism. In place of stones, we have given laptops in the hands of the youth. Omar Abdullah now threatens that terrorism will come back. I want to tell him that despite his patronage, our government is in power in the country and Modiji is the PM, we will never allow terrorism to re-emerge in the Valley,” the Union Home Minister thundered.
“I appeal to you to end the monopoly of these three families. Did Farooq Abdullah protect you in the 1990s? He instead went to London for a summer holiday.
“We have increased facilities for the common man. We gave ₹ 5 lakh free healthcare, did they do it in 70 years? “Modi will give you ₹ 10 lakh healthcare insurance in the future. Modiji has proposed in the Cabinet recently that instead of making macadamized roads under the PMGSY for villages with a population of 500, we should have a macadamized road for every village with a population of 50 people.
“This will benefit mountainous areas. OBCs, Gujjars, Bakarwals and also Pahari’s brothers.
“Farooq’s party opposed reservation to Paharis by telling Gujjars and Bakarwals that Paharis would cut into their reservation quota. We proved them wrong.
“Before reservations, our Gujjar/Bakarwal brothers would look for a peon’s job for their children. With reservations, your children can now become Collectors and District SPs. They can get admission in medical and engineering colleges on reservation.
“This right was guaranteed to you by the Constitution of India. Farooq Abdullah and his friends had not passed on this right to you. They now say that they will review the quota. Don’t worry, even if they hang themselves upside down, nobody can take away your reservation,” he stated.
“I promise to fulfil your demand for the winter camp office of the Collector in Mendhar and this will happen before this winter sets in. Mendhar will have schools up to higher secondary level and your children will get laptops and tablets so that they can get education online.
“We will extend your quota a step further by giving reservations in promotions. Some NC leaders have said that the NC flag is red because there is terrorism in J&K. Do they want to give guns to the hands of our youth?
“We will give our youth from this area guns by recruiting them into the police, Army and the CRPF.
“We will hold special recruitment camps to recruit youth from border areas into the Army and other Defence forces of the country,” he asserted.
HM Shah continued, “We made a conference hall, a Dak Bungalow, brought solar street lights and stopped cross-border shelling in Mendhar.
“If you bring us to power in J&K, we will give ₹ 18,000 annually to the eldest lady of each family, we will give two LPG cylinders free. Farmers will get instead of the present ₹ 6000 in their account, ₹ 10,000. We will reduce the electric power tariff by half and give 500 units of power free.
“Jammu will have a metro, Tawi Riverfront and Poonch and Rajouri will have a tourist destination as good as Pahalgam in the Valley.”
He added, “We will give a 20 per cent quota in the Agniveer scheme. Your children can become the Chief Secretary and the DGP of J&K and those days are not very far.”
“I appeal to you to elect Murtaza Khan and thereby give Modiji an opportunity to bring progress and prosperity to Mendhar”, HM Shah ended his speech with these words.
He will address another four BJP campaign rallies on Saturday in Rajouri, Surankote, Thanamandi and Akhnoor.
