Voters will decide electoral fate of one who makes India happy: BJP

Voters will decide whether a leader who makes Pakistan happy should emerge victorious in the ongoing Lok Sabha election or the one who makes India strong, the ruling BJP said on Tuesday.

The remarks of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national general secretary Vinod Tawde came on a day when polling was underway in 93 Lok Sabha constituencies spread over 11 states and Union territories in the third phase of the parliamentary election.

”In view of the statements that are coming from Farooq Abdulla, Lalu Prasad and others, the people of the country would naturally think while casting their votes that whether a leader who makes Pakistan happy should win or the one who makes India strong,” Tawde told a press conference at the party headquarters here.

Earlier in the day, Prasad, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president, said he is in favour of extending reservation benefits to Muslims and alleged that the BJP wants to do away with reservation by scrapping the Constitution.

”The BJP is against the provision of reservation in the Constitution. Hence, it wants to do away with both,” Prasad told reporters in Patna.

On the BJP’s charge that if voted to power, the Congress, RJD and their allies would ”steal” the quota in jobs and education for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and give it to Muslims, Prasad quipped, ”But should Muslims not get the benefit of reservation?” National Conference president Abdullah has said dialogue is the only way to resolve issues between India and Pakistan as any confrontation will have serious consequences for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Reacting to a recent statement of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on taking back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister on Sunday said no one is going to stop him.

”Let the defence minister do it. Who is going to stop him? In any case, they will not ask us. But let them remember this that they (Pakistan) are not wearing bangles, they also have an atom bomb. The unfortunate part is that the atom bomb will fall on us,” he said.

In an exclusive interview with PTI, Singh said India will never give up its claim on PoK but it will not have to capture it with force because the people of the region, on their own, would want to be part of the country after seeing the development in Kashmir.

Abdullah also questioned the Centre’s policy of holding talks with China but not with Pakistan.