Conflict

Demonitsation left Kashmiri resistance ‘fund starved’, stone pelting reduced, says Arun Jaitley

Mumbai: Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said that the Modi’s demonitsation has left Maoists in many parts of India and ‘separatists’ in Jammu and Kashmir ‘fund starved’.

Stone Pelting in Kashmir is a form of protest and refers to actions of pelting, bombarding or throwing of stones on the Indian Armed Forces and Jammu and Kashmir Police by the people of Kashmir. The stone pelting people mostly include youth of Kashmir with specific range of age. In the local language, it is termed as “Kanni Jung”, which means fighting with stones and the stone pelters are called as Sangbaaz.

He said it greatly reduced the number of protesters taking part in stone-pelting incidents in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

 “Stone pelters used to gather in thousands on the streets of Kashmir before demonetisation was announced, but now not even 25 come together for such agitations,” he said.

“After demonetisation, separatists in Jammu and Kashmir and also Maoists in states like Chhattisgarh have become fund starved,” the minister said.

Jaitley was speaking at a function organised by Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar. He spoke on the topic New India Pledge.

Elaborating on benefits of the move to scrap high-value notes in November 2016, Jaitley said money which was earlier getting circulated outside the economy had come into the formal banking system.

On the BJP’s vision of building a ‘New India’, he said, “We want to spend funds on defence, rural development and infrastructure.”

The finance minister said the Modi government was not satisfied with a 7-7.5% GDP growth rate.

To accelerate the growth rate, the government would continue to take tough decisions in the interest of the nation as it had done since coming into power in 2014, he said.

Jaitley listed several ‘achievements’ of the BJP-led government, which had completed three years in power.

Among them, he spoke about the GST rollout, notes ban, the insolvency and bankruptcy code, amendment to laws related to benami (nameless/anonymous) transactions, fair allocation of spectrum and natural resources and double taxation avoidance treaties signed with various countries.

Click to comment
To Top