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�Which gang were you part of?�: Sibal hits back at Shah for Gupkar remark

New Delhi | 18 November 2020

Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Wednesday hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah for saying that the Congress and People�s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration wanted to take Jammu and Kashmir back to the era of terror and turmoil. He also criticised Shah for using the term �Gupkar Gang�.
�Amit Shah alleges: Congress wants to take J&K back to the era of terror and turmoil, when in talk with other parties in the upcoming District Development Council elections,� Sibal said in a tweet. �Amitji was BJP-PDP [Bharatiya Janata Party-Peoples Democratic Party] alliance to bring back terror in J&K? Which gang were you then part of?�
Congress General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, meanwhile, lashed out at Shah for his remarks against the party. Singh said in a statement that �spreading lies and creating new illusions� had become the way of the Narendra Modi-led government. He also accused Shah of making misleading statements about Jammu and Kashmir, while keeping the responsibility of national security aside.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, whose parties are constituents of the alliance, had also criticised Shah for his remarks on Tuesday. �We are not a �gang� Amit Shahji, we are a legitimate political alliance having fought and continuing to fight elections, much to your disappointment,� Abdullah said.
Shah had on Tuesday gone on a tirade against the People�s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, calling it an �unholy global gathbandhan�. He claimed the �Gupkar Gang� wanted �foreign forces to intervene in Jammu and Kashmir� and that the people of India will �not tolerate them�.
The Union home minister also criticised the Congress in his tweets. 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.
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.
Under the Gupkar Declaration, the regional parties and the Congress had resolved to protect Jammu and Kashmir�s special constitutional status and fight against any move to dilute it.