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| Radha wants Delhi to make divisive Article 370 a permanent feature | | Pandering to separatists | | Rustam
JAMMU, Apr 29: NC president Farooq Abdullah's provocative statement that those who vote for Narendra Modi should drown themselves in sea and Kashmir will not be part of India if communal forces come into power in Delhi evoked a very strong reaction from the BJP and sections of media. A number of leading national dailies condemned Farooq Abdullah editorially. One editorial even criticized Omar Abdullah for not dismissing his father's statement as outrageous. Even a couple of Congress spokespersons dissociated their party from the statement. However, it was Radha Kumar, former interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir, who took an altogether different line. She talked about the need to resolve the so-called Kashmir issue; she talked about the alienation of Kashmiri Muslims; she underlined the significance of Article 370; and she also expressed the view that this Article must be made a permanent feature of the Indian Constitution to end the "alienation" of the people of Kashmir (read members of a particular community, nay a particular sect). For how long New Delhi will consider it a temporary measure?, she asked, adding that its conversion into a permanent feature of the constitution is a must.
In other words, she threw her full weight behind the votaries of Article 370 that has only created serious problems for the nation in Kashmir, hampered the democratic processes in the state, jeopardized the legitimate democratic and economic rights and interest of the minorities in the state and denied the SCs, STs, OBCs and similar other groups of the ir right to lead a dignified life in the state as Indians. While advocating the need to make Article 370 a permanent feature of the Constitution, she also overlooked the fact that it has created an impression the world over that Jammu and Kashmir is not an integral part of India to the same extent as other states of the Union and that an overwhelming majority of population in the state is bitterly opposed to this Article.
All this shows that it is not only the Kashmiri leadership which longs for a dispensation that is outside the political and constitutional organization of India. There are communal elements outside the state as well who also vouches for a separate dispensation for the state. Who has given them the mandate to poke their dirty nose in the internal affairs of Jammu and Kashmir? This is the question which needed to be asked to them. |
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