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Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday wondered how can a country have two Prime Ministers, two constitutions and two flags, in a jibe at TMC MP Saugata Roy during a debate in Lok Sabha where opposition members sought a timeline from the government for holding assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
“How can a country have two PMs, two constitutions and two flags? Those who did this, they did wrong. PM Modi corrected it. We have been saying since 1950 that there should be ‘Ek Pradhan, Ek Nishan, Ek Vidhan’ (One Prime Minister, one flag and one Constitution) in the country, and we did it.” Hone Minister Shah countered Saugata Roy. The TMC MP, participating in the debate on Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill and the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, took on the government for what he charged for failure to bring normalcy in the region.
Seeking early election, he said “Let me start with the situation in Jammu and Kashmir since Amit Shah took over as Home Minister. One of the major steps taken by him was to abrogate Article 370 and then convert the states of Jammu and Kashmir to Union Territories. First Jammu and Kashmir and second, Ladakh. Earlier, Union Territories were converted into States and here, Amit Shah converted the states into Union Territories”. He asked, what have you achieved?
He insisted that they abrogated Article 370 just to fulfil the BJP promise. “’Ek Pradhan, Ek Nishan, Ek Vidhan’ (One Prime Minister, one flag and one Constitution). This was the slogan at the time of Shayama Prasad, this is not for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, as this was a political statement and was his slogan,” he said which prompted Home Minister to rebut the senior TMC leader.
The Home Minister will reply to the overall debate on Wednesday.
Of the two Bills, the government through the reorganisation amendment legislation wants to nominate not more than two members, including a woman, from the community of “Kashmiri Migrants” and one member from the “Displaced Persons from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir” to the legislative assembly of the Union Territory.
The other Bill seeks to alter the nomenclature of “weak and underprivileged classes” to “Other Backward Classes” in J&K. Initiating the debate in the Lower House, Congress leader Amar Singh too urged the government to make public plans on holding assembly polls in the UT.
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