Promise to remove Art 370 from Kashmir: Amitv Shah

RANCHI: Ahead of Jharkhand's first phase of polling on April 29, BJP chief Amit Shah firmly stuck to the saffron party's nationalism plank in his first rally in the state on Saturday.
Peppering his speech at Palamu's Shivaji ground with national security, surgical strikes and a promise to remove Article 370, which grants autonomy to Kashmir, he stressed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the only one, who can defend the "pride and prestige of Bharat mata".
"Don't you think Article 370 in Kashmir should be removed? But people like Omar Abdullah want to separate it from India by having two PMs. Can this happen? Till the time Modi is there, no one can take Kashmir from India," said Shah, promising that Article 370 will be removed if Modi is voted back to power.
In his 30-minute speech before a crowd of about 12,000 people, he targeted Congress, RJD and the main opposition party - Jharkhand Mukti Morcha - for "gifting corruption" to the state. Shah also flagged how his party intends to provide interest free farm loans, pension to sexagenarian farmers among others if Modi is voted back to power.
"Since the last four months, I am touring across the country. Everywhere, there is only chant of Modi. People are eager to bring him back. It's time for you do so too," said Shah, paying tribute to Palamu's martyrs Gumla's Vijay Soreng (Pulwama terror attack) and Lt Abhishek Shukla .
Taking a dig at Congress president Rahul Gandhi, he said: "For the past 20 years, he (Narendra Modi) hasn't taken a single day off since the time when he was Gujarat CM. I have been working with him since then. On the other hand, we have a baba (Rahul Gandhi) who slips into vacation mode every two months making everyone in his party (Congress), including his mother (Sonia Gandhi), wonder about his whereabouts."
Slamming over five decades of Congress rule, he claimed that works done in the past five years under Modi regime will remain unmatched. Shah reeled off names of schemes such as Ayushman Bharat to woo his audience.
But Modi's biggest contribution to the nation in five years is national security, he said.