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Art 370 move to Ram temple, PM achieved impossible, says Shah
Elections to the 68-seat Himachal Pradesh assembly will be held on November 12 and the votes will be counted on December 8. “Be it construction of Ram Mandir or the abrogation of Article 370, the Modi government made possible what had earlier seemed impossible,” Shah said during an election rally in Sirmaur.
From abrogation of Article 370 to the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always accomplished the impossible, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Saturday as he exhorted people to re-elect Bharatiya Janata Party in Himachal Pradesh.
Elections to the 68-seat Himachal Pradesh assembly will be held on November 12 and the votes will be counted on December 8.
“Be it construction of Ram Mandir or the abrogation of Article 370, the Modi government made possible what had earlier seemed impossible,” Shah said during an election rally in Sirmaur.
Targeting the Congress for remaining “silent on Article 370 ”, he said: “Did you ever think that Article 370 would be abrogated? If you talk to Congress leaders and workers about Article 370, they remain mum as its provision was made by Jawaharlal Nehru.”
The Centre decided to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution on August 5, 2019, which effectively revoked the special status of the state of Jammu & Kashmir and bifurcated it into two Union territories -- Ladakh and J&K.
On the construction of Ram temple, Shah said, “Congress used to taunt us and say ‘mandir vahin banayenge, tithi nahi batayenge’ (we’ll build the temple there, but won’t tell you the date). But Prime Minister Modi managed to start the construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya.”
On August 5, 2020, PM Modi offered prayers and laid the foundation stone for a grand temple at the site believed to be the birthplace of Lord Ram in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya, marking the formal launch of the temple’s construction promised by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party nearly three decades earlier.
The home minister further asked people to not vote for the dynasts and said there is “no place for dynastic politics”.
“The time of kings and queens is over. Do you understand?” said Shah as the audience responded in yes.
Shah further hailed Modi ending the 55-year struggle of the Hatti community in the Trans-Giri region by granting them tribal status.
“We have covered 389 panchayats and 160,000 people will get a tribal status. They will benefit from the schemes being run for tribal areas,” he said
The Hatti community is spread across four of the five assembly segments in the Sirmaur district, comprising almost half of the total population of the district. Of the total five seats, the BJP has three legislators in Pacchad, Nahan and Paonta Sahib, while the Congress represents Shillai and Renuka.
He also attacked the Congress party for being jealous and “inciting the Dalit community”.
“It’s time for the people of Himachal Pradesh to change the trend of voting parties to power alternately in every election as the people of Uttarakhand had recently done,” he said as he listed the achievements of the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state.
Earlier in the day, Shah launched the BJP’s election theme song, “Himachal ki Pukar, Phir Bajpa Sarkar”.
Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur and BJP’s former state president Rajeev Bindal also addressed the gathering.
Addressing the gathering, Thakur said: “People of Sirmaur have called me ‘Mama’ and I have struggled a lot to get ST tag for Hatti community of the district.”
Bindal hailed the central government for carrying out unprecedented development work in Himachal Pradesh over the past few years.
The Congress, however, termed the move to grant tribal status to Hattis a “gimmick to gain mileage in the elections”.
“Instead of the passing approving tribal tag for the community in the cabinet, the government should have passed legislation. It is just part of divisive politics,” said AICC spokesperson and media in-charge for Himachal, Alka Lamba.
