Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 22: Former Union Minister, Prof. Chaman Lal Gupta visualises as a sinister move to link Article 370 with the so called Kashmir issue, which in fact was the illegal occupation of one third territory of J&K State by Pakistan.
In a statement issued here, today, he said the Article 370 was purely an internal matter of the country but it seems that certain dubious politicians intend to internationalise this Constitutional provision.
Prof Gupta said that this Article was created just to appease Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah by his friend, the then Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru who was dealing with Kashmir under various pulls and pressures, both internal and external in wake of sad communal position of the country in 1947.
Prof. Gupta also stated that Sheikh Abdullah in a bid wanted to compete Ali Mohammad Jinnah who became a victim of machinations of Imperialists to be the Supremo and became instrumental in communal divide of the Indian people by having a theocratic State of Pakistan. Sheikh desired to compete Jinnah by having fiefdom of Kashmir at the cost of blood and butter of India. It was like creation of another communal divide within India, he added.
He said that the Article 370 is a temporary provision but it sounds strange that this provision still existed in the statue book and even after the expiry of about seven decades is being abused by certain politicians to have their nefarious ends. It is virtually proving a root cause of many problems in Kashmir including secessionism and certain politicians were indulging in fuelling communal feelings to have their own dirty ends. As far as Article 370 is concerned its adoption was itself an apparent blunder. Even the founding father of the Indian Constitution and then Law Minister of the Country was opposed to it, he added.
Prof Gupta said Jawahar Lal Nehru had employed the services of another Minister to pilot this obnoxious provision in the Constituent Assembly. Nehru had assured the agitated nationalists that Article 370 was just a temporary measure and it would whither away with the passage of time, he added.
Prof. Gupta also recalled that great visionary Pandit Prem Nath Dogra was not convinced by the assurance of Nehru and he launched a massive movement against Article 370 and other walls of separatism including Visa like Permit System.
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