Three ‘AKs’ are enough to sustain terror in Kashmir: Modi

AHMED ALI FAYYAZ

The HinduAt Hiranagar, in Kathua district — a constituent of Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha constituency —  Narendra Modi will be addressing a rally, his second in Jammu and Kashmir after BJP's 'Lalkar Rally' on December 1, 2013, at the Maulana Azad Stadium in Jammu. File Photo: Ranjeet Kumar

AK-47, A.K. Antony and Arvind Kejriwal are “helping the country’s enemy”, BJP prime ministerial candidate tells an election meeting in Jammu

In sharp contrast to his December 1, 2013 Lalkar Rally in Jammu, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Wednesday held Pakistan responsible for terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of India, while slamming his detractors from the Union Defence Minister A.K. Antony to the Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal for “helping the country’s enemy”.

Addressing a massive gathering of the BJP supporters at an election campaign rally at Hiranagar, close to the India-Pakistan International Border, in Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha constituency, Mr. Modi said that Pakistan’s AK-47 rifle, Mr. Antony and Mr. Kejriwal were enough to destabilise peace in Kashmir and rest of the country. “These three AKs are sustaining terrorism in Kashmir and other parts of India”, he told a fervent crowd.

The BJP leader said that when the Indian Army made unambiguously clear last year that Pakistani Army men had “butchered our eight jawans” in Poonch, none other than Mr. Antony came to Pakistan’s rescue by saying in Parliament that the assailants were the unidentified men in the Pakistani combat uniform. He alleged that Pakistan was directly and clearly responsible for different forms of terrorism, including the cross-border terrorism, in Kashmir and other parts of this country.

He asserted that Pakistan-backed terrorists had carried out hundreds of bloodbaths in Jammu and Kashmir including the one in September 2013 when nine soldiers and innocent civilians were killed in fidayeen attacks in Hiranagar and Samba. Mr. Modi said that the Congress and the UPA had changed Lal Bahadur Shastri’s slogan “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” slogan to “Mar Jawan, Mar Kisan”.

In a sarcastic reference to his brief term of 49 days as Chief Minister of Delhi, Mr. Modi called the AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal as ‘AK-49’, alleging that even the Jammu and Kashmir map was missing from his party’s official website. He also scolded the National Conference leader and the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for allegedly flying helicopters over the December rally and taking pictures of the gathering in an attempt to prove that there were empty spaces in Maulana Azad Stadium. “Today, I am afraid, he wont fly the choppers over this rally for fear of violating the Model Code of Conduct. But if he does, he will see through this crowded stadium which way the wind is blowing today,” Mr. Modi said.

In his frontal attacks on the arch rival Congress, Mr. Modi yet again called Rahul Gandhi a ‘Shehzada’ and claimed that the Lok Sabha elections would rout the party completely. “Their answer to our each and every question is secularism. When we ask about terrorism, they retort with secularism. When we talk of corruption, they speak secularism, when we talk of unemployment, their refrain is secularism. They have no answer to our questions, nor to those of the common man of this country,” Mr. Modi said.

Retired IGP and founder of the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Special Operations Group Farooq Khan and a Kashmiri journalist Khalid Jehangir joined the BJP at Mr. Modi’s rally.