Month: April 2019

No one can separate Kashmir from India irrespective of who comes to power: Amit Shah

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While addressing a public meeting in Bihar’s Sitamarhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah said, “Omar Abdullah of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ says that there should be another Prime Minster in Kashmir. They want Kashmir to be separated from India. Even if BJP is not in power then also as long as the BJP workers live, no one can separate Kashmir from India.” BJP president Amit Shah asserted that Kashmir can never be separated from India irrespective of whether Narendra Modi will be Prime Minister or whether BJP is in power…

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Voting begins for phase two polls in Kulgam

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Voting began on Monday for the second phase of polls in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag Lok Sabha seat amid high security. Very few voters were seen queuing up outside polling stations as voting began at 7 a.m. Voting is being held in four assembly segments of Kulgam district — Noorabad, Devsar, Kulgam and Homshalibugh. As a precautionary measure, mobile Internet services have been suspended in the south Kashmir areas. Train services between Baramulla and Banihal have also been cancelled for the day. There are 18 candidates in the fray in…

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J&K facing higher threat from forces ‘Hell-bent on destroying Special Status’ than Pakistan: Omar Abdullah

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National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah Saturday said Jammu and Kashmir does not face as much threat from Pakistan or the muzzle of the gun as from the forces who were “hell-bent on destroying the special status of the state”. Addressing a public meet in Kund valley area of Devsar in Kulgam district of Anantnag parliamentary constituency, in south Kashmir, Abdullah said keeping in view the challenges the state is facing, the people have to make a right choice in the ensuing elections while choosing their representative for the Lok…

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Article 370, 35A should be reviewed, scrapped: Rajnath Singh

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Articles 370 and 35A have been harmful to people: Ravinder Raina Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh Sunday said Articles 370 and Article 35-A should be seriously reviewed and scrapped. While Article 370 gives autonomous status to Jammu Kashmir, Article 35-A allows the Himalayan state’s legislature to define permanent residents of the State. Speaking at a voters’ awareness programme here, Singh attacked National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah for his recent remarks that there should be a separate prime minister for Jammu Kashmir. “When a person, who has occupied a constitutional…

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Modi should free Kashmir if he feels the state is at loss due to it’s special status: Mehbooba Mufti

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Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti while lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that if he wants to remove article 35-A and Article 370 he should free Kashmir. “If Modi thinks that Kashmir is at loss due to the special status of the state, then he should free Kashmir,” Mehbooba said while addressing reporters in Kulgam. On Friday Modi said that Article 370 and 35A have done maximum damage to Jammu and Kashmir and only former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s formula of “Insaniyat, Kashmiriyat…

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J&K staring at bankruptcy, Articles 370, 35A did maximum damage to Kashmir: PM Modi

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the problem in Jammu and Kashmir is that a handful of families in the state have made it a “tool of blackmail”. PM Modi said even before coming to power, we [BJP] knew the “right approach” on Kashmir. PM Narendra Modi said this during an exclusive interview in Varanasi on the day he filed his nomination papers. PM Modi said Articles 370 and 35A have done “maximum damage” to Kashmir.“We set up AIIMS and IIM in Kashmir but top professors are not ready…

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Assembly elections ‘Not Possible’ in June, EC may move date to November

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Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir may not be held in June, a top government source on Friday. The source added that the Election Commission could move the date to November. The government has reportedly cited the Ramzan Yatra, tourism season and Bakarwal migration as reasons for further delay in elections. The state has been under President’s rule following the expiry of six months of Governor’s rule in December. The 87-member state assembly plunged into a political crisis after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew support to the PDP government…

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Highway Ban, Landslides, Mismanagement cause shortage of essentials across Valley

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The frequent shutdown of the 300-km Srinagar-Jammu highway — a crucial and the only route for the supply of essential commodities into the Kashmir valley — has led to a fresh shortage of goods in the region. Residents said the closure of the mountainous highway had led to a shortage of livestock and vegetables. It has even led to the cancellation of weddings as the marriage season begins in the region after the winter. A leading business body in the region, Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry, had said on…

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Kashmir’s Empty Voting Machines

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Masses stayed away from the polling booths Turnout in the first phase of voting in Anantnag LS seat was 12 percent. It was 39 percent in 2014. Mehbooba Mufti won the seat in 2014, but the meager turnout in PDP bastions might dent her prospects. It is the only constituency in the country that is going to polls in three phases. And yet, Anantnag, which comprises south Kashmir’s four districts, shows no signs that elections are on. In the first phase, on April 23, a few people cast votes at…

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Allying with PDP was BJP’s mahamilavat in Kashmir: PM Modi

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Ahead of his nomination filing in Varanasi on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to India Today Group editors and said that BJP’s alliance with PDP in Jammu and Kashmir was its “mahamilavat”. “We went with the PDP because Mufti Saab [Mufti Mohammad Syed] was there, but it was like mixing oil and water. The PDP-BJP alliance was our mahamilavat. We only did it because that was the people’s mandate,” said PM Modi while speaking to us. The Prime Minister has once again hit out at the Mufti family and…

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