Article 370 like a dead body; it’s gone, won’t return,says Ram Madhav

Mangalore Today News Network / Yahoo

Srinagar, Oct 28 2019: In a clear message to mainstream opposition politicians in Jammu and Kashmir, BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav on Saturday asked people not to have any doubt or hope about return of Article 370, which accorded a special status to the state.

 

“Aap ko maatam manana hai na? Dead body ko rakh kar 10-11 din mana saktey ho. Woh jo mara hai wapas nahi ayega. 370 samaapt ho gaya hai; wapas nahi ayega’ (If you want to mourn, you can mourn for 10-11 days over the body, but the one who has died will not return. Article 370 has been removed; it will not come back),” Madhav said.

Addressing a seminar on “Accession Day’’, organised by the BJP’s local unit in association with Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Nayas (Trust), Jammu, Madhav said, referring to Jawaharlal Nehru and National Conference party’s founder Sheikh Abdullah, Article 370 was an agreement between two individuals. “It had neither the support of any political party nor the Constituent Assembly. Only two people decided it.”

Referring to the criticism by the Congress and other opposition parties over the Union government’s decision to remove special status to the state under Article 370, Madhav said, “Today, when they ask us whether we did it undemocratically, I say with responsibility that Article 370 was inserted into the Constitution through undemocratic means. We removed it through completely democratic means.”

The BJP leader said that Diwali this year, being celebrated on Sunday, will be a special occasion for the people of J&K, as they are no longer “victims of dual citizenship”. He said: “They now have only one citizenship — as Indian nationals — and they will celebrate the festival with this sense of pride. We have fulfilled the motive with which Maharaja Hari Singh had acceded the state 70 years ago by signing the Instrument of Accession on October 26, 1947.”

Calling Article 370 a “conspiracy”, Madhav said it had not come on the day Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession but was created later. “On that day (October 26, 1947), there had been only one incident involving complete accession of J&K into the Dominion of India, along with 560 states across the country. We gave birth to it later,’’ he said.

On institution of Article 370, he said there are “many players in this drama, who later distorted the decision of Maharaja Hari Singh and the instrument of accession.... Today we have corrected that distortion.”

Maintaining that Jawaharlal Nehru had delayed accession of J&K by four days to “favour” Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and make the Pakistan army reach the boundary of Srinagar city, the BJP leader said the “drama” came later. He said, “The Constituent Assembly was made so as to decide the number of members coming from princely states acceding to Indian Dominion. Jammu and Kashmir was given four members. Of them, two had to be nominated by Maharaja Hari Singh and the remaining two by Praja Parishad, set up following the elections in 1946.

“(But) Nehru refused to give this constitutional right to J&K, saying that the Maharaja was not representative of the people, and that the Praja Parishad had been elected in 1946 elections that were boycotted by the National Conference.”