* Art 370 blocked development: Gadkari
NEW DELHI/Nagpur,
May 28:
The controversy over Article 370 continued unabated today with RSS hitting back at Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for his remarks.
Reacting to Omar’s remarks that either J and K won’t be part of India or Article 370 that grants special status to the State will still exist, senior RSS leader Ram Madhav said the State will always be an integral part of India with or without the provision.
Madhav also asked whether the Chief Minister thought the State was his “parental estate”.
“J&K won’t be the part of India? Is Omar thinking it’s his parental estate? 370 or no 370 J&K has been and will always be an integral part of India,” Madhav said on Twitter.
A fresh controversy over Article 370 erupted yesterday following comments by the new Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh seeking debate on it.
A day after stoking a controversy by making certain comments on Article 370, Union Minister Jitendra Singh dodged all the questions related to the issue.
“This place smells of science and there would only be scientific talk in this room and nothing else,” Singh told reporters when asked about the issue when he took charge as the Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Science.
He dodged every question asked by the media related to his statement on Article 370.
Reacting to Abdullah’s statement, Singh said today, “Good days have come since May 26. If the CM doesn’t look at it then one cannot help it.”
Alleging political motive behind remarks of BJP Minister Jitendra Singh favouring a debate on Article 370, Congress today alleged this is “not a flip flop” but a “carefully orchestrated attempt” at polarizing upcoming Assembly elections in States.
The party also echoed Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s view that Article 370 that provides special status to J&K simply “cannot be repealed”.
Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh on Tuesday stoked a controversy on Article 370 by seeking a debate.
Singh, however, later clarified that he was “misquoted” on the issue.
In Nagpur, senior BJP leader and Union Minister for Transport and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari today joined the row over Article 370 saying that the development of J&K got blocked due to the Constitutional provision that bestows special status on the State.
“The development of J&K could not take off due to Article 370. There is a tremendous scope for development of the State (J&K) and a number of possibilities for tourism (exists). Hence, the new Government is keen to develop the State in a better way,” Gadkari told reporters after visiting ‘Deekshabhoomi’ here where he paid tributes to Dalit icon Babasaheb Ambedkar.
Rejecting the clarification, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said that with these remarks it is clear that “so-called development talk” by BJP during elections was all “rhetoric and camouflage” only till the elections were on.
“Barely a day after taking oath, we have diverse, divisive agendas nakedly out in the front. It is a day of entering the office and the first priority which the BJP-led Government could think of is Article 370.
“According to us, each and every comment and statement is deliberate, thought out, orchestrated and intended to politicize and polarize,” Singhvi said.
He said that such “tactics” are unfortunately being used to “inflame” passions even though it is clear that it is “not politically possible, numerically feasible and constitutionally correct.
“They are being thrown to confuse, confound and create the polarization and the politicization. We condemn it unequivocally and roundly. This is not a flip flop flip. It is a carefully orchestrated attempt to politicize and polarize not only in J&K but across the country.
“It is intended to be inflammatory, divisive, and provocative and most important the BJP knows that they cannot do it. The BJP knows that they do not have the numbers and the mandate, but it is thrown in with a view to State elections. It is thrown in with a view to divide and inflame the electorate… On a pan-India basis,” Singhvi alleged.
Singhvi rued that no less than a Minister of State in the PMO office made the statement, which is on “candid camera in detail”.
“It is then retracted, then the remote control from Nagpur speaks on it, then senior leaders of the BJP run to discuss with the remote control,” Singhvi said.
Former Information and Broadcasting Minister and party leader Manish Tewari said Article 370 that provides special status to Jammu and Kashmir simply “cannot be repealed”, saying it will need the consent of the Constituent Assembly which “cannot be resurrected”.
There should be a basic understanding of the Constitution before any statement is made on such a “sensitive issue”, he added.
“Article 370 (3) read with Art 370 (2) clarifies that 370 cannot be repealed without consent of Constituent Assembly which does not exist. No brainer,” Tewari tweeted.
He said, “Article 370 makes it very clear if you read Article 370’s Section 3 that the President of India can only by notification repeal it if he has the explicit consent of the Constituent Assembly.
“And the Constituent Assembly has prorogued and ceased to exist. It has been dissolved and it cannot be resurrected.”
He said, “So obviously a bare read of the Constitutional provisions makes it clear that it is not possible even if there is a desire to repeal Article 370…. There should be a basic understanding of the Constitution before any articulation is done or any statement is made on such a sensitive issue”.
CPI today termed Article 370 as the “lifeline” of integration of Kashmir with India and warned the Government against any “hasty” decision on the issue, saying the Constitution should not be meddled with to suit someone’s “whims and fancies”.
The party’s Central Secretariat asked the Government “not to take any hasty decision on Article 370, which is the lifeline of integration of Kashmir in the Indian union”.
“The Constitution should not be meddled according to the whims and fancies of some people. It is a delicate political issue which should be dealt carefully respecting the obligations of the framers of the Constitution,” a CPI statement said. (PTI)
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