Union Home Minister Amit Shah blasted the Congress on Friday for "raising question marks" about Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and insisted that India owned every square inch of the region and that no force could take it.


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"Mani Shankar Aiyar is telling us to respect Pakistan as it possesses an atomic bomb. Few days ago, INDIA alliance leader Farooq Abdullah said do not talk about PoK as Pakistan has an atomic bomb. I want to tell the Congress and INDIA alliance that PoK belongs to India and no force can snatch it," Shah said at an election rally in Jharkhand's Khunti.


He said, "I do not know what has happened to the Congress. A resolution was passed unanimously in Parliament that PoK is part of India. You (Congress) are now putting a question mark on PoK by talking about the atom bomb. BJP’s stand is clear that every inch of PoK belongs to India and it will remain with India."


He claimed that although the Congress upheld Article 370 for seventy years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made sure it was repealed. Shah urged people to support the BJP, claiming that the JMM-led coalition in Jharkhand was rife with corruption.


"JMM-led alliance indulged in Rs 300-crore land scam, Rs 1,000-crore mining scam, Rs 1,000-crore MNREGA scam, Rs 40-crore liquor scam. We will not allow the JMM-led alliance to digest poor people's money," he said.


He said that the money that was "being looted by Rahul Baba's party" belonged to the people of Jharkhand and would be returned to the masses, referring to the recovery of approximately Rs 350 crore from the premises connected to a Jharkhand-based Rajya Sabha MP and Rs 35 crore from the domestic assistance of an official linked to Jharkhand-based Congress Minister Alamgir. 


He accused the JMM and Congress of doing "vote-bank politics". "Congress created obstacles in building Ram Mandir in Ayodhya for 70 years whereas PM Modi constructed the temple in five years...Rahul Baba did not come to Ram Mandir consecration as he was afraid of his 'vote bank'," he said.


"I want to ask Rahul Gandhi why the Congress failed to appoint any tribal President during its rule", he said while taking a jibe at the grand old party and INDIA alliance. Shah said under the Congress regime, Maoists exercised rights on "jal, jungle and jameen (water, forest and land) in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. "After you made Modi Prime Minister, he wiped out the Maoist menace and ushered in development," he said.


The Home Minister said the credit of freeing Jharkhand and Budha Pahad from the clutches of Maoists goes to BJP and PM Modi. He said it is the BJP regime that ensured respect and dignity for tribals and the Prime Minister has already announced to celebrate the 125th birth anniversary of tribal icon Birsa Munda as 'Janjatiya Gaurav Varsh' in 2025.


Birsa Munda waged a war against the British and its effect reverberated across India, but the Congress and JMM governments did not give tribals their due, he said.


"Now, the tribal population faces the biggest threat from infiltrators who are building homes in tribal villages and marrying local girls. If anyone can stop them, it is only the BJP," he said. "Under Prime Minister Modi, the tribal welfare budget was enhanced to Rs 1,33,000 crore from Rs 29,000 crore in the previous Congress regime," he said and added that 40,000 teachers will be appointed for Eklavya Model schools across the country. A total of one lakh children are enrolled in 740 such schools," he said.


The Home Minister emphasised that Rs 88,000 crore under DMFT (District Mineral Foundation Trust) was being spent across the country for development of tribal areas.
The Modi government is building 10 tribal museums in various parts of the country at a cost of Rs 200 crore, he said.


Shah urged people to vote for BJP candidate and Union Minister Arjun Munda. The minister is contesting against Congress's Kalicharan Munda whom he had defeated by a slender margin of 1,445 votes in the 2019 elections. Khunti will go to polls on May 13 alongwith Lohardaga, Sinbhum and Palmu seats.