The Congress Party on Saturday hit back at BJP President Amit Shah, accusing him of "shedding crocodile tears" in front of the people of Jammu after he lashed out at the Congress demanding an apology from its chief Rahul Gandhi for "anti-national statements" made by two of its senior leaders.
In a statement, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said Amit Shah had no business to lecture the Congress on nationalism and that the BJP would never be able to realise the hard work which the UPA did to usher peace in Jammu and Kashmir.
"They have shamelessly squandered the mandate and shunned their responsibility," he said referring to the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) sudden decision to withdraw support from the PDP-led coalition government.
"After plunging Jammu and Kashmir into a deep turmoil, through an unethical opportunistic alliance, marred with a disquiet border, corruption, malgovernance and false promises, in the last four years, BJP President is shedding crocodile tears in front of the people of Jammu," the he said in the statement.
The Congress added that instead of doing "this choreographed drama", Amit Shah should reflect upon hard facts which included 16 major terror attacks under the BJP rule, rise in deaths of soldiers and civilians in the state, and surge in ceasefire violations.
Earlier addressing a BJP rally in Jammu, Shah had lashed out at the Congress for what he called anti-national statements made by its two senior leaders, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Saifuddin Soz, and demanded Gandhi should apologize.
Azad had said recently that while the security forces in Kashmir killed one militant, they killed 13 civilians with him, while Soz, in his forthcoming book on Kashmir, said that the majority of Kashmiris want independence.
Hitting back at the BJP, Surjewala said Narendra Modi government at the Centre and BJP-PDP government in Jammu and Kashmir had betrayed the people of the state.
"Sixteen major terror attacks have taken place on our security installations... Modi government invited the Pakistan-based rogue ISI to investigate the Pathankot attack," he said.
He said the BJP was speaking a "white lie" that its policy led to more militants being killed as under PDP-Congress (2003-08) rule, 4,970 militants were killed and under NC-Congress (2009-14), 925 militants were killed compared to the PDP-BJP (2015-18) rule when 591 militants were killed.
Surjewala also noted that in the last two years, there have been 3,000 ceasefire violations by Pakistan compared to 563 ceasefire violations during last two years of UPA.
Accusing the PDP-BJP government of betraying the trust of people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, he said that the BJP was now shirking responsibility "after pushing the state into darkness" and that the collapse of the coalition government "is a relief" for the state's people.
The tall talks of packages and development on the lines of 'Kashmiriyat' have become a 'grand mirage' under BJP," he added.
(With IANS inputs)
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