Ahmedabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday alleged that India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru kept Sardar Patel away from the Kashmir issue and the nation was now bearing the brunt of it.
Modi, while addressing a rally in Gujarat's Amreli, said: “Jawarharlal Nehru had asked Sardar Patel to leave Kashmir issue to him and do everything else and now we are facing [the brunt of] it. Has Modi created the Kashmir issue? It’s a Congress legacy.”
The Prime Minister, who is on a two-day campaign in his home state Gujarat, also took a dig at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, saying there was no violence during panchayat polls held in Jammu and Kashmir “but hundreds of people were killed in Bengal”.
He added, “When our 40 jawans were killed in a terror attack in Pulwama, the Congress was conspiring to corner me over the attack but within 12 days, our jawans carried out air strikes in Pakistan.”
“Fearing retaliation from India, Pakistan had deployed all its army personnel at India’s border. Pakistan even shifted its jawans from the Afghanistan border and deployed them here. During this time, I went to South Korea and they believed that Modi will not do anything as he is in South Korea but they don’t know who Modi is. I gave a free hand to the army. Pakistan thought Modi is from Gujarat so India’s jawans will come through the sea route. But we carried out surprise air strikes,” Modi said.
Speaking in Gujarati, Modi invoked the ‘son of the soil’ card before voters and urged them to vote for their ‘own man’ at the Centre. “Press the ‘lotus’ button and the votes will reach me,” he appealed.
The BJP has once again fielded its sitting MP Naran Kachadiya in Amreli Lok Sabha seat against Congress candidate Paresh Dhanani. Dhanani is Amreli MLA and leader of opposition in state legislative assembly. In 2017, of the seven assembly seats, the Congress had won five assembly seats, leaving just two for the BJP.
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