Lucknow, Jun 4: Uttar Pradesh BJP has hit out at the Congress as well as the principal opposition Samajwadi Party and asked them to clarify on a map showing Kashmir as IOK in a booklet released by Congress.
State BJP general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak said here today that everyone knows about the pro- Pakistani stand of the Congress since independence, but now what is the stand of the Samajwadi Party, the alliance partners of the Congress on the issue.
“SP leadership should come out and give their reaction on the issue. By keeping silent on the matter it will only prove that they are supporting the Congress on their anti-national act,” Mr Pathak said in a statement here.
He said that the release of the booklet by Congress and none other than Gulam Nabi Azad, a former J&K CM is a planned strategy by the party to support the anti-national elements in the Kashmir valley.
“The move of Mr Azad to skip all the questions over J&K and particularly over the stone pelting students of the Kashmir valley yesterday during a press conference in Lucknow also vindicates the charges of the BJP that the Congress and its leaders are hand in gloves with the anti-national forces,” he further alleged.
Controversy broke out after 16-page booklet distributed by the Congress here yesterday during party UP in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad’s visit to the state capital included a map that mentioned a part of Kashmir as “Indian-Occupied Kashmir”, leading a major embarrassment for the party which tried to corner the Narendra Modi government over its “failed” foreign policy.
The map was included in the booklet in reference to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Named ‘National Security Endangered.. Bravado, Rhetoric, Hyperbole Rules…!’, the booklet mentioned that the corridor is worth $54 billion and has been “built through POK/Balochistan connecting Gwadar Port in Arabian sea to China with base for Chinese submarines”.
“Does it not compromise India’s sovereignty over POK? And affects our strategic interests in Arabian sea with Chinese Naval presence,” it added. The booklet has been printed and released by the All India Congress Committee.
However, none of the senior leaders were available for comment from the Congress except for UP Congress vice-president Satyadeo Tripathi, who blamed the printers of the booklet for the controversy.
“Congress has always believed that Kashmir is an integral part of India. There may be some printing mistake in the map but the text clearly talks of POK. We are highlighting failures of BJP government in the past three years and they are again trying to divert attention by raising insignificant issues,” Mr Tripathi said.
Meanwhile, no Samajwadi Party leader was ready to make any comment on the matter.
