SRINAGAR, Aug 25 : A day after Union minister Amit Shah slammed the Congress for its alliance with the NC for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls, the regional party’s MP, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, Saturday hit back at the BJP, saying its regime survives on “lying and distorting” facts.
Shah on Friday also accused the Congress of repeatedly risking the country’s unity and security in its greed for power.
The Congress has once again “exposed its ulterior motives by allying with the Abdullah family’s National Conference,” the BJP leader said on X, and posted 10 questions for the national party and its leader Rahul Gandhi while listing several of the manifesto promises of the NC.
Mehdi, an influential Shia leader, asked the BJP to refrain from “spreading lies or distortion of facts”.
“Lying and distorting the facts is what BJP and its regime survives on,” he said in a post on X.
Rebutting Shah’s charge that the NC manifesto calls for abolishing reservations for “Dalits, Gujjars, Bakerwals and Pahadis”, Mehdi said no one in the NC is taking away the rights of any section of society.
“We at @JKNC_ have promised to correct the imbalance. Which means while continuing the reservations, the proportion of the population or implementation of -what the SC has also directed – a slab of 50% on the reservations will be the guiding factor,” the Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar said.
On Shah’s charge that the NC wants the ‘Shankaracharya Hill’ to be known as ‘Takht-e-Suleiman’ and the ‘Hari Hill’ as ‘Koh-e-Maran’, the MP said name changing on a “communal basis” is the BJP’s “bigotry” and way of functioning.
“We neither believe in such things nor function in that manner,” he added.
Shankaracharya and Kohe Suleiman are two different spots on a hill and a mountain in Srinagar city which have been known for centuries with those names and will continue to be named so, Mehdi said.
“I suggest you to refrain from spreading lies or distortion of facts. You have already villainised the people of Kashmir and destroyed their identity and dignity beyond repair with your lies and misinformation,” the NC MP added. (Agencies)
