Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Sunday, February 24 held a rally at Bhagwati Nagar in Jammu city. The local residents reportedly called the event politically motivated and gave it a miss.
Additionally, many were not even aware of Shah’s presence in the city. According to the report by Amit Khajuria in The Tribune, Jammu residents asserted that the BJP chief was simply making an attempt to garner votes for his party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and using the Pulwama incident as an excuse.
Local shopkeepers and traders also slammed Shah for the rally and termed it as a political stunt. Speaking to The Tribune, a student Rakesh Gupta said, “What will the BJP national president say on Pulwama martyrs? We are not expecting any strong decision from him regarding giving Pakistan a befitting reply for its cowardly act of killing our troops.”
Another person who attended the rally reportedly claimed that Shah merely repeated the statements which have been were earlier issued by the BJP. “What Shah said today was a copy of earlier BJP statements. Now we want action not just condemnation,” said Sunil Anand, reported The Tribune.
According to news agency ANI, Shah had again blamed former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the crisis in Kashmir Valley. “I want to tell him (Rahul Gandhi) that if questions are being raised about Kashmir today, it’s because of your great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru.” he said in the rally.