Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 28: Various organizations have welcomed the stand of Union Minister of State with Independent Charge Dr Jitendra Singh who advocated for a debate on Article 370 granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir State. They have strongly criticized the outbursts of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah on the issue saying that abrogation of Article 370 will lead to secession of J&K from rest of India.
State BJP while endorsing the statement of Dr Singh said that Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah whose party got decimated in just concluded Lok Sabha elections and only got 10 percent total votes polled should not cross the line by making irresponsible and controversial statements.
A spokesman of the party in a statement here, today said that J&K acceded to India on October 26, 1947 while the Article 370 was adopted by the Indian Constituent Assembly on October 17, 1949 as a purely temporary measure. Article 370 has nothing to do with accession of the State with India. J&K was one of the 560 odd princely States which acceded to India by signing the instrument of accession and there was no difference whatsoever between the instrument of accession signed by the Maharaja of J&K and the ones signed by other princes, spokesman added.
He said Indian Parliament has full authority to amend or repeal it.
Panun Kashmir which also endorsed Dr Singh’s statement said Article 370 is a temporary provision in the Indian Constitution. “It needs to be clarified that the Article 370 is a temporary provision in the Indian Constitution which was never intended to be a permanent statute,” Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo, President, Panun Kashmir said in a statement.
He said in the debates leading up to the framing of the Constitution, the worthy members of the Constituent Assembly never favoured it as a permanent feature. The Panun leader, however, welcomed the statement of Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the PMO, regarding abrogation of Art 370.
He said, “The statement is well timed and speaks volumes about the intentions of the new Government about the mandated agenda on Jammu and Kashmir”.
“It is ridiculous that J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah should threaten to secede in case Art 370 is abrogated. Unfortunately he seems ignorant of the fact that the Indian Constitution does not allow secession from the Indian territory,” he added.
Mr Chrungoo said Art 370 has always nourished a feeling of exclusivism among a certain section of the populace giving rise to fissiparous tendencies. Moreover, it has provided a Constitutional justification for nourishing separatism in Jammu and Kashmir, he added.
“It has led to a belief that the Jammu and Kashmir State can be put outside the constitutional organisation of the Union of India despite the State being a part of the territory of India. A debate, of course, on the issue of Article 370 is inevitable in the current political context,” he added.
VHP State patron, Dr Rama Kant Dubey, while snubbing the Chief Minister said the inclusion of Article 370 in Indian Constitution was the result of an international conspiracy and hence needs to be abrogated for total merger of State with rest of the country.
He said instead of doing any good the special status has harmed the interests of the people of the State and also taken the State from separate status to separatism.
JKVM senior leader Dr R L Bhat said 370 has nothing to do with State’s accession with rest of India as it is a temporary provision granted by Indian Constitution to J&K State which has to go. This arrangement of Article 370 was made for better administration and management in the State.
However, there is a majority opinion that it hindered development on one hand and removed channels of employment and industrial growth on the other hand, hence there is nothing wrong in starting discussion on the issue, he added.
KPC chief Kundan Kashmiri while opposing Omar Abdullah and others who are opposed to debate on Article 370 said that it is a temporary provision and has to go by all means.
In a statement issued here, today Kashmiri said that Article 370 was root cause of mass exodus of over four lakh minority Pandits from Valley, denial of citizenship rights to West Pak refugees for over last 60 years and it has led the State of J&K into backwardness.
He said it is high time to initiate a debate on the Article to find out whether it has harmed the cause of people in the State or not.
Displaced KPs Front president Satish Pajnoo and senior leader Pushkar Nath Pandita have also welcomed the statement of Dr Jitendra Singh on Article 370 and strongly advocated for initiating a debate on the same.
They said that when there is no separate provision in Indian Constitution for other states of the country why the J&K has been given a special position as the Article 370 giving a separate status to the State has led to present separatist movement in the Valley. The sooner it is abrogated the better, they added.
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