Congress leader's ‘Indira Gandhi’ counter to BJP's PoK pitch: ‘10 years enough to take it back’

Congress leader Rajeev Shukla said the BJP had a decade in power with a parliamentary majority but failed to reclaim PoK.

Congress leader Rajeev Shukla on Wednesday hit back at Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath for claiming that the Narendra Modi-led government would take back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir if voted to power, saying they failed to do it despite having had a decade in power with a parliamentary majority.

“Honourable Yogi ji is neither Defence minister nor foreign minister,” Shukla said. “They [BJP] should have taken back PoK in these 10 years. It's enough days to take it back; you had the majority. ”

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He pointed to the leadership of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who oversaw the creation of Bangladesh following the 1971 war with Pakistan.

“Indira Gandhi got the power and broke Pakistan into two pieces, that's the record of Congress,” he said.

Shukla claimed that the BJP's coalition partners would abandon it in favor of the opposition INDIA bloc if they were to come into power.

"If tomorrow, INDIA alliance forms the government, their [BJP] allies will leave them to join us. When the government is formed, people join based on ideology," Shukla predicted.

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He also addressed the BJP's criticism of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who passed away in 1964, and alleged that the ruling party has shown a pattern of disrespect towards its own founding figures.

"Nehru ji died in 1964 but the BJP kept abusing him. It doesn't bother me anymore because if they can forget Atal Bihari Vajpayee and [L.K.] Advani, those who made them, it's in their nature to keep abusing Nehru ji," Shukla said.

The BJP leaders have been asserting that the Modi government in its third term would reclaim PoK.

“We want 400 plus seats so that PoK can be made an integral part of India,” Adityanath said an election rally in Prayagraj.

Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said: "PoK (Pakistan occupied Kashmir) was with India and it would remain with us. India would take PoK."

Senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan accused the Congress and India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru of "breaking the country" and asserted that PM Narendra Modi "will bring the nation together".

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