Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said blamed the Congress for delaying the Ayodhya case in the Supreme Court, PTI reported. The home minister also claimed that under the Congress government, the “Kashmir problem” was not dealt with for 70 years.

“Everyone wanted a Ram temple in Ayodhya but the Congress kept stalling the case,” Shah said at two public rallies, while kicking off the Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign for Assembly elections in Jharkhand. “The Congress party left the Kashmir problem hanging for 70 years in its greed to protect its vote bank. Modiji [Narendra Modi] has erased the blot of Article 370 from the crown jewel of ‘Bharat Mata’ and paved the way for Kashmir’s development.”

The rallies were held at Manika in Latehar district and another was at Lohardaga district.

In a unanimous verdict on November 9, the Supreme Court said a trust should be set up by the Centre within three months to oversee the construction of a temple in Ayodhya. The Muslims, the court had said, should be given five acres of land elsewhere in Ayodhya for the construction of a new mosque as relief for the “unlawful destruction” of the Babri Masjid in 1992.

Shah on Thursday said the Modi government at the Centre revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special constitutional status in the first Parliament session after the party came back for a second term.

The BJP chief accused the Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha alliance of indulging in corruption and conning the Adivasis and the poor. “JMM leader Hemant Soren should be asked which party he has aligned with, a party which hoodwinked tribals for 70 years,” Shah said. “I would like to ask the Congress president [Sonia Gandhi] and Rahul Gandhi to give an account of what they have done for tribals.” He added that the ruling BJP government would also provide an account of the work done in the state.

The home minister asked why the Congress had failed to provide facilities such as cooking gas connections, electricity, and toilets, among other things to the public. Shah said the BJP, in its poll manifesto, promise to constitute a panel that will look into raising the percentage of reservation for the underprivileged sections of the society.

A museum will be set up as a memorial for Adivasi leaders, who had taken part in the freedom struggle, he said. Shah congratulated Chief Minister Raghubar Das for eliminating the threat from Maoists in the state.

Shah pointed out that it was a BJP government that had formed the separate state of Jharkhand. “Atal ji [Atal Bihari Vajpayee] created Jharkhand and Narendra Modi will embellish and spruce it up,” he said. “People kept dying, youth sacrificed their lives, but the dream of statehood remained unfulfilled under Congress rule.”

Assembly polls in Jharkhand will be held in five phases starting November 30. Results will be announced on December 23.

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