Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 9: Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad today asked BJP president Amit Shah to set his geography right saying 12 Prime Ministers in India and six Chief Ministers in Jammu and Kashmir had been out of Nehru-Gandhi and Abdullah dynasties.
Speaking to reporters at SMGS Hospital after visiting injured Congress leader RS Pathania, Azad said now when Amit Shah has become president of the ruling party, he was required to set his knowledge of history and geography right.
“Amit Shah is not correct when he says that India and Jammu and Kashmir have been ruled by Nehru-Gandhi and Abdullah dynasties,” Azad, who had come here to visit injured Pathania after addressing one day district convention of the party in Kathua, said.
He named several Prime Ministers of India, who were not part of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty including Lal Bahadur Shastri, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, Chandrashekhar, VP Singh, PV Narasimha Rao, Deve Gowda, Inder Kumar Gujral, Atal Behari Vajpayee, Dr Manmohan Singh and now Narendra Modi.
Similarly, he said, six Chief Ministers in Jammu and Kashmir were not part of Abdullah dynasty. He named them as Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, Shamas-ud-Din, GM Sadiq, Mir Qasim, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Azad himself.
“Now when Amit Shah is heading the national party, which is ruling the country, it is better for him to first read the geography and then make the statements,” Azad said.
Amit Shah in his first address to BJP National Council in New Delhi today had charged two families (Nehru-Gandhi and Abdullah) for ruining India and Jammu and Kashmir.
To a question, Azad said nothing has changed in the country after takeover of Prime Ministership by Narendra Modi despite tall claims by him that inflation would be checked.
“The prices of all essential commodities including pulses, rice, vegetables, kerosene oil, petrol diesel, cooking gas, railways fairs and steel, cement have started touching sky high in just two months of this Government,” he added.
He said he came to know only yesterday that the prices of mutton have gone up by about Rs 100 per kg in New Delhi.
Azad said the people have realized that they had been fooled by the BJP and this was the reason that the Congress has won three by-elections to Assembly held after formation of the new Government.
AICC (I) general secretary, Incharge Jammu and Kashmir, Ambika Soni said she can do nothing but only laugh at the claim of Amit Shah of forming next Government in Jammu and Kashmir.
She said the BJP has not much base in Jammu and Kashmir and had managed to win 11 seats in 2008 Assembly elections due to Amarnath land row agitation. Even from those 11 MLAs, the BJP had to remove seven for cross voting.
She said the BJP was day dreaming of coming to power.
“The Congress is a strong party and would emerge victorious,” she added.
Earlier, speaking to reporters in Kathua, Azad said Amit Shah faced more serious allegations than the corruption.
“The charges leveled against Shah were more serious than corruption though corruption is also a serious menace,’’ he said targeting the BJP chief, who had blasted the Congress in his first speech to the BJP National Council today.
Azad admitted that there was resentment among the people against the National Conference, a result of which the party has taken a decision to go it alone in the Assembly elections.
Ambika Soni charged Minister of State in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh for the UPSC row putting career of the students at stake.
“Dr Singh’s love for English has jeopardized career of the students,’’ she said.
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