Education in shatters causes stone-pelting in Kashmir: Army Chief
New Delhi, July 3: Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Tuesday said that decades of militancy has shattered the education system in Jammu and Kashmir and this is one of factors behind stone-pelting protests in the state.
The Army chief was interacting with students from Chhattisgarh who were on a trip to Delhi.
One of the them asked him why there were frequent stone-pelting incidents in the Kashmir Valley.
Gen Rawat replied that Kashmiris were being fed with misinformation that India was anti-Muslim and those who eat beef were being killed.
"They try to shield terrorists. They pelt stones as it is easily available. (Stone-)pelting is not (something) new. Unemployment is a factor for this, but it is not unique to Kashmir. There is unemployment in other parts of the country as well. Youngsters there don't pelt stones.
"Education there (Kashmir) is shattered. Most of the schooling is done through madarassas, which cannot get you good jobs."
He said the Army had two ways of dealing with the situation.
"The harsh way or the other way is to make them understand that what they are doing is wrong. We bring some of the people from there to Delhi to show we don't have Army on every corner here as Delhi is peaceful. If Kashmir is also peaceful, the Army will be taken away from there."
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After arriving from Delhi, Shinde heads to his native village; Mahayuti meet likely on Sun
Mumbai(PTI): Outgoing Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who returned to Mumbai from New Delhi on Friday morning, is travelling to his native village in Satara district amid continuing suspense over his successor a week after the assembly poll results.
Shinde had told reporters in New Delhi on late Thursday night that the next meeting of the Mahayuti alliance on government formation will be held in Mumbai on Friday.
However, the caretaker CM, who heads the Shiv Sena, is travelling to his native village Dare in Satara district in western Maharashtra and the meeting is now expected to take place on Sunday, the sources said.
The Shiv Sena leader has repeatedly said he would not be an obstacle in the government formation and abide by the decisions taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the next chief minister.
Different viewpoints are emerging in the Shiv Sena over Shinde's place in the next government to be headed by the BJP, the biggest constituent in the Mahayuti, which posted a thumping win in the just-held assembly polls.
Many leaders in the Shiv Sena are asking Shinde to accept deputy CM's post if offered by the BJP. However, another section feels it wouldn't be right for him to accept No. 2 position after serving as CM for more than two-and-a-half years, the sources said.
"The government formation process will start after the BJP announces its legislature party leader," they said.
During his Delhi trip, Shinde had met Shah and discussed formation of the next government in the state. His deputies in the outgoing state cabinet Devendra Fadnavis (BJP) and Ajit Pawar (NCP) had also met the senior BJP leader.
Talking to reporters in the national capital, Shinde called the discussion “good and positive”.
Shinde, Fadnavis and Pawar had also met BJP president J P Nadda.
