The Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Ghulam Ahmed Mir on Sunday hit out at the Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed and questioned the need of touching the topic of safeguarding Article 370 in his I-Day speech.
Mir said that the Chief Minister must make it clear to his allies that the Article 370 is permanent and nobody can touch it.
Mufti on Sunday had said that the special status of J&K State should be safeguarded. His emphasis on protecting J&K’s special status came at a time when State Government has received a notice from Supreme Court seeking its response on a petition challenging Article 35A of Indian Constitution.
“Mufti is panicked and that is why he raised the issue (Article 370) yesterday,” Mir told.
“He should have not raked the issue there. He must tell the people with whom they have formed the government,” the JKPCC Chief said.
He said Mufti’s I-Day speech reflects his helplessness before New Delhi. Mir said that abolition of Article was one the prime basis for formation of BJP government in center and J&K. “Everybody knows BJP is hell bent to abolish Article 370,” he said.
At the same time, senior Congress leader said that nobody would be allowed to touch the Article 370. “Article 370 is permanent and we will not allow anybody to touch it,” he said.
Pertinently, soon after the new government took over, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Dr Jitendra Singh had stirred the hornet’s nest by saying the administration was working on the abrogation of Article 370 and talking to various stakeholders.
Although Singh later claimed he was misquoted, the BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had said the issue should be debated.
Pertinently, Congress has been targeting the PDP-BJP alliance from day on the pretext of duping the people of J&K by fighting elections against each other first and then forging an alliance.
Congress took out a series of rallies in Srinagar to build pressure on the government to provide relief to the people of Kashmir, especially to those hit by the devastating deluge of last September. With Mir on the forefront, the Congress had been upping the ante against PDP-BJP separately by accusing the BJP of pursuing communal agenda and PDP of dividing people.
