Giving a twist to the controversy over article 370, BJP president Rajnath Singh on Sunday said his party would accept the special status to Jammu and Kashmir if it is proved that the provision has helped in development and eradication of poverty in the state.
“Time has come when there should be debate among you (people) in Jammu and Kashmir. If article 370 has benefited in eradicating poverty, unemployment and helped in development then we will also accept it. But if it has not benefited then I leave it to you the decision to abrogate this law or not,” Rajnath Singh said while addressing the Lalkar rally in Jammu.
The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi too called for discussion on whether article 370 has benefited the ordinary people. “Some people in the county have invented a herb called secularism to atone their sins. In J&K they have added one more thing to it and that is article 370… Time has come to discuss whether article 370 has benefited ordinary people here or not,” Modi said.
The Gujarat chief minister also lashed out at prime minister Manmohan Singh for sermonizing BJP leaders while forgetting their own for walking the talk. “I agree with the prime minister when he named many BJP leaders and said they should walk the talk. I also want to remind him what prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru said in parliament that article 370 will rub out with time. Are you (PM) ready to do what Nehru said? Article 370 is used as kavach (shield) which is decorated with the ornaments of communalism,” he said.
Under article 370 of the constitution, Jammu and Kashmir enjoys a special status in the Indian union. Under article 370, no non-state subject can buy land or property or become permanent citizen of the state. Under the special status, J&K is the only state which has a separate constitution, flag and penal code.
It has been the BJP’s stand that the article 370 should be revoked to make J&K like any other state of the country.
What however raised hackles was Modi’s invoking the name of Omar’s sister Sara (wife of Congress leader and union minister Sachin Pilot) to claim that women had not been given equal rights in J&K unlike in other parts of the country.
“Laws in J&K discriminate between men and women. I have not come to talk of Hindus and Muslims...I am raising a serious question. Let somebody tell me does Omar Abdullah’s sister Sara enjoy same rights that of her brother? No, she does not because she has married outside Kashmir. And that is why her rights have been snatched,” he said.
Omar Abdullah immediately reacted sharply to Modi’s personal barbs, saying that the BJP leader was ill-informed. “He very conveniently used me and my sister as examples to illustrate a point that has no bearing in truth. Either he lies or is ill informed. And finally women DO NOT lose their domicile right by marrying non state subjects regardless of the propaganda surrounding this issue,” Omar tweeted.
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