Congress trains guns at PM for not speaking on Kashmir unrest

New Delhi, Aug. 15 (ANI): The Congress Party on Monday dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day address as the poorest speech ever made from the ramparts of the Red Fort and cornered him for not speaking on the prevailing unrest in Kashmir but rather highlighting Islamabad's brutality in Gilgit-Balochistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, expressed his disappointment over the fact that the Prime Minister was all the time talking about Balochistan and other places, but didn't say a word about the present unrest in Kashmir. "Now, this is the 37th day there is curfew in Kashmir, but he did not utter even a single word about the boys and the people killed there and the thousands of people injured and the prolonged curfew. He didn't talk about the plight of the Kashmir," Azad told the media here. "So, he didn't talk about the Kashmir which is our part, an integral part of India. He was talking about something which was occupied by somebody else," he added. Stating that Balochistan is not a problem, the Congress leader pointed out that the main cause of concern at the moment is Kashmir. "Kashmir is burning. This is for the first time if I remember correctly never before in 36 years I have seen that a full-fledged debate in Rajya Sabha on two occasions within 25 days.so, in total four times this issue was raised and discussed in the Parliament so important is this issue," said Azad. Questioning the Prime Minister's silence on Kashmir, the Congress leader said, "That was the place to give the message to our own Kashmir, who are our own kith and kin. So, you are not talking about your own children." Pointing out that the Prime Minister's speech was not even of a Chief Minister's standard, Azad said that the former should have talked about development and employment. "He should have talked about policy vis-a-vis Pakistan, America and China," he added. The Congress leader further alleged that the Prime Minister maintains silence wherever there is a discussion on the issue of minorities, Kashmir, Dalits and farmers. Deviating from the norm of restricting Independence Day speeches to issues of domestic import, the Prime Minister earlier said the fact that people from those remote and deprived regions are approaching India for help and support should be seen as a certificate of credit of New Delhi's humanitarian approach and the greater need for shunning violence as a pursuit of one's life. "Many innocents were killed in Peshawar terrorist attack, but there were tears in everyone's eyes in Parliament here," he said in his speech on the occasion of India's 70th Independence Day. (ANI)