Congress says will respond at ‘right time’ after HM Shah raises questions on alliance with NC

Srinagar, Aug 24 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief Tariq Hameed Karra has said that the party will respond at the right time to questions raised by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on its pre-poll alliance with the National Conference.

He made the remarks on Friday when asked to respond to BJP leader Shah’s 10 questions on Congress’ electoral alliance with the National Conference in the upcoming Assembly election.

Karra said that names of probable candidates for 24 seats where polls are slated in the first phase were discussed in the party meeting on Friday. He said that the party will soon announce the names.

When asked about the Congress’ opinion on the National Conference’s stand on Article 370, Karra said that the party will reveal its opinion at the right time. He said that Congress has its own agenda on Article 370, while the National Conference has its own.

The Congress leader said that the BJP’s policies are “anti-people, so we have decided to contest the elections along with like-minded parties opposing these policies”.

Earlier in a post on X, the Home Minister said, “The Congress party, which has repeatedly risked the nation’s unity and security to satiate its greed for power, has once again exposed its ulterior motives by allying with the Abdullah family’s ‘National Conference’ for the Jammu and Kashmir elections.”

In his post, Home Minister Amit Shah said that given the promises made in the National Conference’s manifesto, he has 10 questions for the Congress and Rahul Gandhi.

Here are the 10 questions:

* Does the Congress support the National Conference’s promise of a separate flag for Jammu and Kashmir?

* Do Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party support the JKNC’s decision to restore Article 370 and 35A, and thereby push Jammu and Kashmir back into an era of unrest and terrorism?

* Does the Congress support promoting separatism again by engaging in dialogue with Pakistan instead of Kashmir’s youth?

* Do the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi support the National Conference’s decision to start ‘LoC Trade’ with Pakistan, thereby nurturing terrorism and its ecosystem across the border?

* Does Congress support reinstating relatives of those involved in terrorism and stone-pelting into government jobs, thereby bringing back terrorism, extremism, and the era of strikes?

* The alliance has exposed the Congress party’s anti-reservation stance. Does Congress support the JKNC’s promise to end reservations for Dalits, Gujjars, Bakarwals, and Pahadi communities, thereby inflicting injustice upon them?

* Does the Congress want ‘Shankaracharya Hill,’ to be known as ‘Takht-e-Suleiman,’ and ‘Hari Hill’ as ‘Koh-e-Maran’?

* Does the Congress support the politics of pushing Jammu and Kashmir’s economy back into corruption and handing it over to selected Pakistan-supported families?

* Does the Congress party support the JKNC’s politics of discrimination between Jammu and the Valley?

* Do the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi support the JKNC’s divisive politics of granting autonomy to Kashmir?

The National Conference, which released its manifesto for the upcoming elections on Monday, has pledged to push for an India-Pakistan dialogue on Kashmir, introduce laws to protect jobs and land, seek the release of political prisoners, and review the cases of employees terminated over the past five years.

The Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases — on September 18, September 25, and October 1. The results will be announced on October 4.

–IANS

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