Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday termed the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration an “unholy global gathbandhan”. He claimed the alliance wanted “foreign forces to intervene in Jammu and Kashmir” and that the people of India will “not tolerate them”.

“Either the Gupkar Gang swims along with the national mood or else the people will sink it,” he said. Shah also accused the alliance of attempting to take Jammu and Kashmir “back to the era of terror and turmoil”.

The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, or Gupkar Alliance, is a tie-up of six parties, which was formed in October with the agenda of reinstating the now abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, which provided special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

In a series of tweets Shah also attacked the Congress, which is a part of the Gupkar alliance. In an apparent reference to an alleged comment made by National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah on taking “China’s support” on the matter of reinstating Article 370, and Peoples Democratic Party Leader Mehbooba Mufti’s recent comments on the national flag, Shah asked Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the party’s MP Rahul Gandhi to clarify their stand.

“Do Sonia Ji and Rahul Ji support such moves of the Gupkar Gang?” he tweeted.

Meanwhile, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad supported Shah’s remarks and called them “appropriate”, reported PTI. He cited Mufti’s remarks, made on November 9 and October 23, that she will hold both the tricolour and the flag of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir together.

Prasad also claimed that National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah once said that he will ask for China’s support for restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. “Unlike these leaders, the people of the Jammu and Kashmir have started benefitting from pro-people central laws that have been brought into force in the Union Territory after the abrogation of special status,” he said.

The Union minister also cited several legislations, including women being earlier deprived of property rights in Jammu and Kashmir if they married outside, anti-corruption laws and various other “humanist” central laws that were not enforced in the Union Territory.

On Monday too, the Bharatiya Janata Party had launched an attack on Congress on similar lines as the party’s spokesperson Sambit Patra and Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad raised questions on the agenda of Gupkar Alliance.

While Patra compared the alliance to Pakistan, claiming that its intention of reinstating Article 370 aligned to that of the neighbouring country, Prasad asked if the Congress wants annulment of “pro-people” Central laws that are now applicable in Jammu and Kashmir, following the abrogation.

Jammu and Kashmir has been under central rule since June 2018. The special status of the erstwhile state under Article 370 was revoked in August 2019 by the Parliament and the region was bifurcated into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. A slew of petitions challenging the abrogation is pending before the Supreme Court.