NEW DELHI : A day after BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi demanded a debate on whether Article 370 of the Constitution of India was actually beneficial to the people of J&K, senior party leader Arun Jaitley today said it would be incorrect for anyone to interpret BJP’s challenge for a debate on this issue as a softening of stand on Article 370.
“Yesterday Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh addressed a huge rally in J&K. J&K’s integration with India is an essential part of the ideology of Bhartiya Jana Sangh and now the BJP. The BJP believes that Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee’s vision of complete integration of J&K was the correct vision for India,” Mr Jaitley said in a Facebook post.
The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said the “Nehruvian vision of a separate status has given rise to aspirations for the pre-1953 status, self-rule and even Azadi”.
Mr Jaitley said the desire of proponents of these three ideas has weakened the constitutional and political relationship between J&K and the rest of the country.
“The journey of separate status has been towards separatism and not towards integration. It would be incorrect for anyone to interpret BJP’s challenge for a debate on this issue as a softening of stand on Article 370,” he said. (AGENCIES)
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