BJP Hits out at Congress, Digvijay Singh on “Re-Look” Promise on Article 370 in J&K

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, June 12: The senior Congress leader and the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh who has the habit of kicking up unsavoury controversies with his uncalled for remarks, was in the eye of the storm again promising a “re-look” at the abrogation of article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir if the Congress returned to power at the entre.

His comments gave an opportunity to the BJP to hit out at Singh and the Congress equating the party with Pakistan with both “speaking the same anti-India language” and the party spokesman Sambit Patra demanding clarifications from the Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and her son and former president Rahul Gandhi.

Singh’s comments in a clubhouse conversation that the revocation of Article 370 and stripping Jammu and Kashmir of statehood was an “extremely sad” decision and his party would have a “relook” at the issue have triggered a row giving an opportunity to the BJP to accuse him of speaking against India and in agreement with Pakistan. Singh made the remarks in a chat with a person that the BJP said was a journalist of Pakistani origin.

“The decision of revoking Article 370 and reducing the statehood of J&K is extremely, I would say, sad decision, and the Congress party would certainly have a relook on the issue,” Singh said, according to bits of conversation available on social media.

He was responding to a question about the “way forward” on the issue once the Modi government is gone.

As the BJP attacked him, Singh responded attempting to justify his remarks claiming that the “bunch of illiterate people cannot probably differentiate between ‘shall’ and ‘consider’,” the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said.

Attacking him, Patra told reporters, “We have all seen how Digvijay Singh is spitting venom on India and speaking in agreement with Pakistan. This is the same person who had dubbed the Pulwama attack as an accident and described the 26/11 Mumbai attack as RSS conspiracy.”

The BJP leader cited old comments of other Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Mani Shankar Aiyar, to allege that Singh’s remarks were part of a larger pattern of the party being “hand in glove” with Pakistan.

“This is all part of the toolkit which the BJP had exposed,” Patra said in a reference to a controversial document rejected as fake by the Congress.

The Congress would go to the extent of collaborating with China and Pakistan to spread “hate” against Modi and India, he alleged.

“The Congress should change its name from INC to ANC (Anti-national Clubhouse). This is such a clubhouse whose members have begun hating India while hating Modi,” he alleged.

Patra asked Sonia Gandhi and Rahul to make their party’s stand clear on the issue.

He claimed that Rahul Gandhi is the leader of these Congress politicians, adding that Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan had used his criticism of Article 370 as part of his country’s dossier against India on the issue in the UN.

Union ministers Giriraj Singh and Kiren Rijiju were among other BJP leaders who targeted the Congress in their tweets over the issue.

“It is precisely this mindset of the Congress party which has sown the seeds of separatism in Kashmir and facilitated Pak designs in the Valley (sic),” Union Minister Jitendra Singh wrote on Twitter and shared a clip of the chat posted by the BJP’s social media chief Amit Malviya.

In the clip, the Congress leader is apparently referring to former prime minister and BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s approach of “Insaaniyat (humanity), Kashmiriyat, jamhooriyat (democracy)” for Kashmir.

“Democracy was not there in Kashmir when they revoked article 370. Then “insaniyat” was not there because they had put everyone behind bars. And Kashmiriyat is something, which is basically the fundamental of secularism. Because in a Muslim majority state, there was a Hindu king, and both worked together. In fact, reservation in government services was given to Kashmiri Pandits.”

“Losing the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir is extremely sad decision. And the Congress party would definitely like to have a re-look at the decision,” he is heard saying.

The MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan sought a reply from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. “Kashmir is an integral part of India. It was the Congress that committed the sin of bringing Article 370. What does Congress want to reconsider? Do they want to bring back separatists?” he said.

Special status to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution was scrapped in 2019. Article 370 gave Jammu and Kashmir its own constitution and decision-making rights for all matters barring defence, communications and foreign affairs. Its removal ended special status for Kashmir, which was key to its accession to India in 1947.

The Congress had opposed the move at the time and a resolution was passed against it by its top decision making body – the CWC. The party had insisted that all stakeholders should have been consulted before taking the decision.

Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said the comment proved that Pakistan and the Congress are on the same pedestal. “Poor governance, low credibility, bleak future & yet dream about freeing Kashmir from India. Birds of the same feather flock together!” the minister tweeted.

Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said democracy was only in the hands of the ruling elite and insaniyat died when “instigators of violence sent their own kids abroad and gave stones to children of common folk. Instead of playing to the gallery across the border Congress must come to terms with abrogation of article 370,” the minister tweeted.