Article 370: BJP under fire over its ‘shifting stance’

CONTROVERSIAL WRITTEN statement of MOS (home) Hansraj Gangaram Ahir in Lok Sabha says ‘there is currently no proposal to scrap Article 370’

JAMMU: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an ally of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, has yet again come in the line of fire vis-à-vis its stance on Article 370 that guarantees special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Responding to a written question in the Lok Sabha, the written statement of Union minister of state for home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir on Tuesday that “there is currently no proposal to scrap Article 370” has again stirred a hornet’s nest in the state.

Scrapping Article 370 forms part of the BJP’S core ideology.

Congress spokesman Ravinder Sharma said, “BJP has always been befooling and betraying the people of the state on Article 370. It is an emotional issue for the state and the rest of the country. They (BJP) have also sought votes on this issue.”

Now, in power in the state and the Centre, the BJP has taken a U-turn, he said and added that “the BJP has always exploited the sentiments of the people on such emotive issues but never meant to implement them when in power.

Sharma recollected that the BJP didn’t scrap it during the regime of AB Vajpayee.

National Conference provincial president and a close confidant of Omar Abdullah, Devender Singh Rana, said, “It is a known fact that Article 370 cannot be abrogated. It is part of the Constitution of India that determines the relationship of Jammu and Kashmir with India.”

Rana further said, “BJP has always indulged in emotive rhetoric on Article 370 for its own benefit in a bid to mislead the people. It is time the BJP shuns the path of hollow sloganeering and gets down to some real work on the ground.”

A senior high court lawyer expressed regrets on BJP’S wavering stances.

“Abrogation of Article 370 has always been BJP’S core ideology but ever since it formed the government with PDP, the party has meekly given up on the issues of Jammu region,” he said on the condition of anonymity.

The state BJP spokesman Prof Virender Gupta, however, maintained that revocation of Article 370 was still core agenda of the BJP.

“MOS (home) Ahir has said that as of now, it can’t be scrapped. He has not ruled it out completely,” said Prof Gupta.

When asked whether Ahir said so because BJP has to stay in power in the state with the PDP, diametrically opposed to revocation of special status, Gupta said that both the parties formed the coalition government on the basis of ‘agenda for alliance’ and mutually agreed upon not raking up controversial issues.

He, however, admitted that chief minister Mehbooba Mufti quite often raked up issues in consonance with PDP’S self-rule ideology, which she should not have.

To a poser, he said, “BJP ministers in the ruling alliance have not been able to represent the opinions of the people of Jammu region effectively.”