Pak and Cong aligned; party works with anti-national forces: Shah

Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah on Thursday said the Pakistan defence minister's statement on the Congress and National Conference lending support to Article 370 and 35A has once "again exposed" the opposition party.

Shah also claimed that the tune of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi's party and Pakistan has always been the same and the Congress has always been "hand in glove with the anti-national forces".

He said the statement of Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif proved that the neighbouring country and the Congress have the "same intentions and agenda".

"Pakistan defence minister's statement about the Congress and the JKNC's support on Article 370 and 35A has once again exposed the Congress. This statement has once again made it clear that the Congress and Pakistan have the same intentions and agenda. For the last few years, Rahul Gandhi has been standing with every anti-India force, hurting the sentiments of the countrymen," Shah wrote on X in Hindi.

The home minister said be it asking for proof of air strikes and surgical strikes against Pakistan or saying "objectionable things" about the Indian Army, the tune of the Congress Party and Pakistan has always been the same. The Congress has always been "hand in glove with the anti-national forces", he asserted.

"But, the Congress party and Pakistan forget that there is Modi government at the Centre, hence neither Article 370 nor terrorism is going to come back in Kashmir," he said.

Pakistan Defence Minister Asif has said that the Shehbaz Sharif government and the Congress-National Conference alliance in Jammu and Kashmir were on the same page on the issue of restoration of Article 370.

"They (the alliance) have made it an election issue. Pakistan and the National Conference-Congress alliance are on the same page in Jammu and Kashmir to restore Article 370 and 35A," Asif was quoted as saying in an interview.

Khawaja's comments have come amid the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections that are being held for the first time since the abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A five years ago.

Article 370 gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and Article 35A gave special rights and privileges to its "permanent residents".

On August 5, 2019, these two provisions of the Constitution were abrogated by the Narendra Modi government and the erstwhile state was bifurcated into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.