Congress counters BJP's attack over alliance with NC; brings up saffron party's ties with PDP

New Delhi: Slamming the BJP for attacking it over its alliance with National Conference, Congress on Saturday hit back at the saffron party asking whether it had read the manifesto of PDP when it aligned with the party then led by Mufti Mohd Sayeed in 2015.

The counter-attack came after Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders targeted the Congress asking whether it had read the NC manifesto, which spoke about removing the quota regime in Kashmir among other things, before finalising the alliance.

Congress Media Department chairperson Pawan Khera said, “I want to know from Amit Shah that when the BJP formed an alliance with PDP, did he read the PDP manifesto? In that manifesto, there was a mention of using the currencies of both India and Pakistan.”

“There was a long discussion on self-rule. Despite all this, you form a government with them and drafted a common minimum programme, which said you will follow the path of Atal Behari Vjaypayee and will establish talks with Hurriyat? Why did you write that, tell me? Sitting on the post of Home Minister, BJP leaders have got into the habit of speaking nonsense,” he said.

On Friday, Shah had posed ten questions, asking Congress whether it supports the NC’s promise of a separate flag for Jammu and Kashmir and whether its leader Rahul Gandhi and the party support the decision to restore Article 370 and 35A.

He also asked whether the Congress supported the NC's promise to end reservations for Dalits, Gujjars, Bakarwals and Pahadi communities.