New Delhi: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah responded to Union Interior Minister Amit Shah, who on Tuesday called for an alliance of J & K’s main political parties, the ‘Gupkar gang’.
Shah said the alliance was an “ungodly global gathbandhan” and that it went against national interests.
The Gupkar gang is going global! They want foreign forces to intervene in Jammu and Kashmir. The Gupkar gang also insults the tricolor of India. Do Sonia Ji and Rahul Ji support such movements of the Gupkar gang? They must make their position very clear to the people of India.
– Amit Shah (@AmitShah) November 17, 2020
Congress and the Gupkar Gang want to bring J&K back to the age of terror and confusion. They want to take away the rights of Dalits, women and tribes that we have secured by removing Article 370. That is why they are being rejected by people everywhere.
– Amit Shah (@AmitShah) November 17, 2020
The People’s Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) is a conglomerate of regional and national political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, which was formed to demand the restoration of Article 370, which the Center suddenly removed last year. Gupkar’s party bosses were slapped with Public Safety Law cases and nearly all were held captive for nearly a year.
Led by Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference, the Alliance also includes the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), the Peoples’ Conference, the CPI (M), the Awami National Conference and the Peoples’ Movement of Jammu and Kashmir. (J & KPM).
It is not clear what Shah meant by denouncing the “global” participation in the alliance of the parties.
Jammu and Kashmir has been, is and will always be an integral part of India. The Indian people will no longer tolerate a profane ‘global gathbandhan’ against our national interest. Either the Gupkar Gang swims with the national mood or the people will sink it.
– Amit Shah (@AmitShah) November 17, 2020
It’s also unclear what prompted Shah to tweet three times about the alliance, aside from the fact that the first phase of the newly formed District Development Council elections is scheduled for November 25. This will be the first political exercise in the Territory of the Union since it was formed by the Center. It is significant that the Gupkar Alliance has decided to contest the ballot jointly.
In the tweets, Shah also appeared to ask Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party if they supported the alliance. Congress is not part of the alliance.
Fighting back, Congress said it vigorously refutes Shah’s “fabricated and baseless” claims. In a two-page statement posted on Twitter, its main spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala, said that Shah was making malicious remarks about Jammu and Kashmir.
आए दिन झूठ बोलना, कपट फैलाना व नए भ्रमजाल गढ़ना मोदी सरकार का चाल-चेहरा-चरित्र बन गया है।
शर्म की बात है कि देश के गृहमंत्री श्री अमित शाह राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा की अपनी जिम्मेदारी दरकिनार कर जम्मू, कश्मीर व लद्दाख पर सरासर झूठी, भ्रामक व शरारतपूर्ण बयानबाजी कर रहे हैं!
हमारा बयान-: pic.twitter.com/AsX67nFI03
– Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) November 17, 2020
“Perhaps Amit Shah and the Modi government need a new lesson in nationalism because their RSS parental organization did not fly the tricolor for 52 years after independence at their headquarters,” he said.
This is not the first time that the Minister of the Interior of the Union uses the word “gang” to illegitimate a legal group. His labeling of JNU students and activists who were anti-BJP as the ‘tukde tukde gang ‘has proven enduring for those in the BJP, even though Shah’s own ministry said earlier this year that it has no data on any of those gangs.
Former J&K Prime Minister Mehbooba Mufti, whose party, the PDP, is part of the alliance, wrote that Shah seemed to say that the very instrument responsible for the BJP being able to form its last state government in Bihar, a political alliance, is it is now being criticized as one that undermines the national interest.
Fighting elections in an alliance is also anti-national now. The BJP may weave so many alliances in its hunger for power, but somehow we are undermining the national interest by raising a united front.
– Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) November 17, 2020
He also accused Shah of ignoring the real issues with the outfit by mentioning made-up themes like ‘love jihad’ and the ‘Gupkar gang’.
The old BJP tactic of dividing India by projecting themselves as saviors and political opponents as internal and imaginary enemies is far too predictable now. Love jihad, tukde tukde and now the Gupkar Gang dominates the political discourse rather than as unemployment and inflation rise
– Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) November 17, 2020
The former Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, also issued a rebuttal, claiming that the Interior Minister’s “frustration” is due to the political amalgamation that he decided to contest the upcoming elections of the local body and did not give the BJP and its allies a Free race. Abdullah appeared to indicate that the newly formed Apni Party of Jammu and Kashmir, promoted by former PDP leader Altaf Bukhari, had informed Shah that the alliance was ready to boycott the elections.
Only at J&K can leaders be arrested and called anti-national for participating in elections and supporting the democratic process. The truth is that all those who oppose the ideology of the BJP are labeled “corrupt and anti-national”.
– Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) November 17, 2020
We are not a “gang” Amit Shah ji, we are a legitimate political alliance that we have fought and continue to fight against the elections, much to their disappointment.
– Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) November 17, 2020
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