SRINAGAR: AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge‘s potshots at the BJP brass for “raking up” Article 370 backfired Friday on his party’s alliance with National Conference (NC) in J&K, with Srinagar MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi saying “no INC president or JKPCC president has a right to misinterpret the resolution” passed by the assembly to restore the region’s special status.
“This resolution calls for the return of all the guarantees in their original shape and form, as operational before 1953, including Art 370 and 35A. Let alone JKPCC or any other entity, even if anyone from within @JKNC_ tries to misinterpret the resolution…(they) will be rejected and pushed by the people to a corner of irrelevance, as the allies of BJP were in the last election,” he wrote on X.
The NC MP’s outburst at Kharge’s remarks about BJP “keeping alive the issue of Article 370” coincided with J&K PCC chief Tariq Hameed Karra telling reporters in Srinagar that the November 6 assembly resolution doesn’t even mention the abrogated constitutional provision, let alone seek its reinstatement.
“(Home minister) Amit Shah, in his poll rallies, accuses Congress of spreading lies. He is saying Congress wants to bring back Article 370 (in J&K). Tell me, who said that and when?” Kharge said Thursday at a presser in Maharashtra’s Pune.
“If it (the motion to abrogate Article 370) has been passed in Parliament, why are you raking up the issue again? If you want to say this, go to Kashmir and say it. Elections are over in Kashmir.”
Mehdi said the purpose of new J&K assembly’s resolution was to express the people’s disapproval of all the amendments and allegedly unconstitutional abrogation of the “guaranteed (special) status of J&K” from 1953 till 2019.
Democratic Progressive Azad Party’s Salman Nizami said jousting between Congress and BJP over Article 370 had exposed the fault lines in the grand old party’s alliance with NC. “Both Congress and BJP call Article 370 a closed chapter, yet your party is in alliance with Congress and gifts shawls to BJP to keep both in good humour,” he said, addressing Mehdi.
“I feel sad for you, as you have let down your own legacy—reduced to defending hypocrisy. Is this all you do now?”
State Congress chief Karra clarified that his party, which decided not to join the coalition govt till J&K’s statehood was restored, said there should be no ambiguity about the purpose of the assembly resolution. “We have already said that the only thing left to demand after the Supreme Court verdict on Article 370 is statehood…Despite our clear-cut statement, BJP is misrepresenting facts at election rallies.”
PM Narendra Modi said while campaigning in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar Thursday that Congress and its allies were plotting to have a separate constitution for J&K.
