PoK belongs to India we will take it back at any cost: Amit Shah

PTI, May 16, 2024, 7:19 PM IST

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday asserted that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) belongs to India and the country will take it back ”at any cost”.

Addressing back-to-back election rallies in Bihar’s Sitamarhi and Madhubani Lok Sabha constituencies in favour of NDA nominees, the former BJP president also claimed that the Congress-led INDIA bloc was planning to rotate the PM’s chair among its constituents if voted to power.

”When Article 370 was scrapped, Rahul Gandhi had said that it would lead to bloodshed. Five years have elapsed and not a pebble has been hurled. But Congress ally Farooq Abdullah tries scaremongering by saying that we cannot take back PoK as Pakistan has atom bombs,” Shah said at Sitamarhi.

Sitamarhi district, bordering Nepal, is considered the birthplace of Goddess Sita.

”I wish to declare from the birthplace of Goddess Sita that Bharat and its 140 crore people fear no one. Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is ours and it will remain so. We will take it back,” he said.

The NDA government will also ensure full security along the India-Nepal border in its third term, he added.

Hitting out at the INDIA alliance for not announcing its PM candidate, Shah said the country needs a strong prime minister and not ”one in every year”.

”They (INDIA bloc) don’t have a face for the PM’s post. The country has decided to give Modi ji a third term. But, can you tell me who will be the INDIA bloc’s PM candidate? They are not coming to power at any cost… but in case… will Mamata Banerjee become the PM or MK Stalin or Lalu Prasad? They have decided to rotate the PM’s chair among themselves if they form the government,” he said.

The BJP leader wondered if such a prime minister could be able to protect the country from a pandemic or a terrorist attack.

About Bihar, the union home minister said the state needs ”vikas raj and not jungle raj”.

He said RJD has joined hands with the Congress which opposed the Mandal Commission’s recommendations and delayed the report of the Kakasaheb Kalelkar Commission of 1955 which was set up to investigate the conditions of socially and educationally backward classes. ”The Congress ruled the country for 60 years but did not think about the welfare of 60 crore OBCs. Congress and RJD never thought of conferring Bharat Ratna on former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur… it was done by Modi Ji only,” he said.

Accusing INDIA bloc leaders of being involved in ”Rs 12 lakh crore corruption”, Shah said the NDA government wants to end this menace.

Congress and RJD leaders did not attend the Ram temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya despite being invited because of their vote bank politics, he claimed.

Shah said that the NDA government has decided to develop ‘Punaura Dham Mandir’, a temple in Sitamarhi district considered to be the birthplace of Goddess Sita, as an international pilgrimage site.

”The NDA government is against cow slaughter… we will not allow it at any cost. Those found involved in cow slaughter will be hanged upside down during the third term of Modi Ji,” he said.

Shah the Centre’s decision to ban the Popular Front of India is correct as, he claimed, the PFI wanted to make the country an Islamic one.