Rahul baba, sister Priyanka rode snowmobile because we made Kashmir safe, says Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah took a jibe at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi over his recent Jammu and Kashmir visit, saying the Leader of the Opposition can eat ice cream and ride a bike there because the NDA government has made the region safe.

Addressing an election rally in Jammu and Kashmir's Ramban, Amit Shah said, "We have made Kashmir safe. Today Rahul baba rides a bike in Kashmir and abuses Modi ji while eating ice cream at Lal Chowk. Rahul Baba, you are abusing Modi ji, but this was not possible in your government. Modi ji has buried terrorism to the depths."

Amit Shah was referring to a video from Rahul Gandhi's visit to Jammu and Kashmir last month, where the Congress MP was seen coming out of an ice cream store in Srinagar's Lal Chowk. During his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Rahul Gandhi was seen riding a bike in Ladakh.

Amit Shah also took a jibe at senior Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde, saying the former Home Minister can now take a walk in Srinagar's Lal Chowk without any fear.

"Sushil Kumar Shinde, who was the Home Minister during the Congress government, has just given a statement that at that time he was scared of coming to Lal Chowk.



Shinde sahib, now come with your children, take a walk in Lal Chowk. Nobody will dare harm you," Amit Shah said at an election rally in Jammu and Kashmir's Ramban.

Amit Shah was reacting to Shinde's recent remark where the latter admitted that he used to feel scared of venturing out in Kashmir even as he held the office of the Home Minister in the Congress-led UPA government.

"Before I became the Home Minister, I visited him (educationist Vijay Dhar). I used to ask him for advice. He advised me not to roam around but to visit Lal Chowk (in Srinagar), meet people and go around Dal Lake. That advice gave me publicity and people thought that here is a Home Minister who goes there without any fear, but who do I tell that I was scared?" Shinde had said at the launch of his memoir in Delhi on September 10.

The BJP-led NDA government has credited its decision to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir for reduction in militancy in the region.

The Congress and National Conference, who are going to contest the upcoming Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir, allege that the decision was a betrayal to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and have promised to restore it.