Jammu: In a key development highlighting the strained ties between the two nations, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday asked the residents of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to come and join India asserting that Delhi considered them as its own, unlike Pakistan which treats them as foreigners.
Singh, who was addressing an election rally in Jammu and Kashmir's Ramban district in support of BJP candidate Rakesh Singh Thakur, also slammed the National Conference-Congress alliance in the Union Territory, coming down heavily for their poll promise of restoring Article 370.
Singh said that as long as BJP was there, restoration of Article 370 was "impossible". "Support the BJP to form the next government in Jammu Kashmir so that we can facilitate massive development in the region. There will be so much development that the people in PoK on seeing this should say that we do not want to live with Pakistan and instead will go to India," the defence minister said.
He said that recently an affidavit was filed by the additional solicitor general in the neighboring country stating that PoK is a foreign land. "I want to tell PoK residents that Pakistan is considering you foreigner but the people in India do not consider you as such. We consider you as our own and so come and join us," he said.
He welcomed the "sea of change" in the overall security situation in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 and said youths now carry laptops and computers instead of pistols and revolvers.
The defence minister's visit as a star campaigner of the BJP comes a day after Home Minister Amit Shah's two-day tour during which he released the party's manifesto, held a series of meetings with senior party leaders and also addressed a workers' rally. In the Ramban constituency, the BJP's Thakur is up against the NC's Arjun Singh Raju and party's rebel Suraj Singh Parihar.
The seat was last won by the BJP's Neelam Kumar Langeh who was denied a ticket by the party this time. Singh is also scheduled to visit adjoining Banihal constituency to seek votes for party candidate Mohd Saleem Bhat who is pitted against former Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president and ex-minister Vikar Rasool Wani. (Agency inputs)
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