‘Radical change in J&K over five years’

JAMMU:Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said Jammu & Kashmir will witness a radical change in terms of development over the next five years and that people of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) will be envious and will seek to live with India. “The day it happens, our unanimous resolution of Parliament will also be fulfilled,” he said at a virtual rally focussed on Jammu & Kashmir.

Singh was referring to the February 1994 resolution that said the entire erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir, including PoK, are India’s integral part and asked Pakistan vacate the areas of the region it has occupied through aggression.

Singh called Constitution’s Article 370, which was nullified last year , an “old stain”.

Singh said the weather has changed and Pakistan is feeling the heat. “Our channels are now showing temperatures of Muzaffarabad and Gilgit [PoK]. ...Therefore, there is now more mischief but our security forces and agencies are giving them a befitting reply. Terrorists are being killed in large numbers...”

In its response, the Pakistan Foreign Office rejected Singh’s remarks about the situation in J&K, while it described the Article 370 move as “illegal and unilateral” and said subsequent steps showed “that the primary motivation remains the disempowerment and disenfranchisement of the Kashmiri people…”

Pakistan alleged that Singh’s statements were a “desperate attempt” to divert attention and accused India of “human rights violations”.

Singh also questioned arch-rival Congress’s “discreet silence” over the nullification of Article 370.

Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said, “At this juncture, defence minister rather than narrating poetry should explain the reality of 75% jump in Incursion by China at LAC and why till date China has not retreated from Pangong Tso.”