Jammu And Kashmir's Integration Complete With Axing Of Article 370, Says Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said Jammu and Kashmir's integration with India was completed with the scrapping of Article 370.

He said under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Parliament abrogated Article 370 to make Jammu and Kashmir an integral part of India.

Shah was speaking at the passing out parade of 70th batch of Indian Police Service (IPS) probationers at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy.

Paying rich tributes to India's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Shah said he achieved the challenging task of merging 630 states with the Indian Union.

Recalling that the Nizam of the Hyderabad State was not ready to accede to the Indian Union, Shah said Patel succeeded in making Hyderabad accede to India with the historic police action.

"Under Sri Sardar Patel's leadership, historic police action made Hyderabad, Telangana, Andhra, parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra a part of India. The credit for making this city a part of India goes to police action," he said.

Shah said Jammu and Kashmir was the last missing point as its accession to India was not complete with the continuation of Article 370. "Everyone was feeling something was missing," he said.

Stating that 33,000 policemen have so far laid down their lives for the nation, he told IPS probationers that they were going to become part of this great tradition of serving the nation.

Shah said the country faced several challenges to its internal security like terrorism, narcotics, cybercrime and challenges created by the neighbouring countries.

Stating that peace and security is a must to achieve Modi's vision of making India a five trillion dollar economy, he said that without internal security and law and order, peace and security was not possible.