In an apparent reference to Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh’s recent rhetoric on the special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Provincial President National Conference Mr Devender Singh Rana on Friday accused BJP of manipulating and exploiting Article 370 as per its political exigencies and in a vein bid to cover up its credibility deficit.“BJP justified putting Article 370 in the backburner while entering into alliance with equally opportunistic PDP and when the people of Jammu turned tables on it for breaking promises, it attempted to rake it up again in the mistaken belief of befooling people”, Rana said, adding the saffron party stands exposed for changing colours like chameleon.
The Provincial President, while addressing workers in Nagrota Assembly Constituency, decried myopic saffron politics, saying it lacked even basic knowledge about the Indian Constitution, which has guaranteed special provisions to various states of the country, including Jammu and Kashmir, as per urges and aspirations of the people.He asked those raking up Article 370 just for whipping up passions and further alienating the people of Jammu and Kashmir from national mainstream to have indepth study of the Constitution of India and get updated how other parts of the country like Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Goa etc enjoyed special and unique status as per various sub sections (A to G) of Article 371.
Rana lamented that Jammu and Kashmir was being singled out just to satiate the communal agenda of BJP. “In this unholy pursuit, the PDP had volunteered to be a facilitator in order to weaken Article 370 and 35A”, he said and cautioned that National Conference will not allow it to happen, as it will mean trampling of the constitutional guarantee held out to the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. He said any attempt to weaken Article 35 A will be detrimental, not only to particular region or community, but the people of all faiths, regions and sub-regions of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Provincial President asked the BJP and its ally PDP to desist from inciting passions to hide governance deficit and performance inertia. He said Jammu and Kashmir was undergoing through a nightmarish phase with development take rear seat and rhetoric guiding the political discourse of the anti-people coalition government. “By diverting the attention of Jammuties from the real problem related to setting up of a separate and independent AIIMS, along with the one in Kashmir, BJP is unsuccessfully attempting to hoodwink the public opinion”, he said, adding that the people were wise enough to see through the nefarious designs of PDP-BJP combine. (CNS)