‘GOVT’S J&K POLICY HAS CREATED SPACE FOR PAKISTAN’

BENGALURU: Rahul Gandhi flayed the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) policy of the Narendra Modi government on Wednesday, alleging that it has created a space in the troubled state for Pakistan to “misbehave”.

His attack on the government at a Congress event in Bengaluru comes a day after Modi, in his Independence Day address, reached out Kashmiris, saying abuses and bullets would not resolve their problems but embracing them would.

Rahul Gandhi was inaugurating the Indira Canteens in the city, modelled on the lines of the Amma canteens of Tamil Nadu, which will provide breakfast at ₹5 and lunch and dinner at ₹10. The move is being seen as an outreach programme ahead of the state Assembly elections early next year.

“He (Modi) has created an environment in Jammu and Kashmir of hatred and anger, and the only people who benefit from violence and hatred are the Pakistanis,” he said.

Claiming that he worked on the J&K issue with Manmohan Singh, who was the prime minister, and leaders such as P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh silently without any “drama or tamasha”, he said their effort of 10 years was “destroyed by Modi in one month”. Gandhi said the Congress-led coalition in 2004 inherited a government from Atal Bihari Vajpayee under which Kashmir was “burning”, and one of the biggest successes of the Manmohan Singh government was creating an environment of peace in J&K.