Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 15: Amid raging controversy over National Capital Territory Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021, former chief minister and vice president of National Conference, Omar Abdullah on Monday taunted Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Adami Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal for supporting central government on the abrogation of Article 370.
Reacting to Kejriwal's tweet against the Union Government, Omar tweeted, “In spite of AAP’s support for the dismemberment & downgrading of J&K in 2019, we still condemn this assault on the powers of the elected government of Delhi. Delhi deserves to be a full state with all powers exercised by the elected government & not a nominated LG”.
Earlier, Kejriwal accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government of trying to ‘drastically curtail powers of the elected government through a Bill in Lok Sabha’.
Kejriwal said that the BJP was trying to introduce the Bill because it was rejected by the people in elections.
“After being rejected by ppl of Del (8 seats in Assembly, 0 in MCD bypolls), BJP seeks to drastically curtail powers of elected govt thro a Bill in LS today. Bill is contrary to Constitution Bench judgment. We strongly condemn BJP’s unconstitutional in anti-democracy move," Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet.
During debate on abrogation of Article 370 and 35-A in the Rajya Sabha on August 5, 2019, AAP had supported Centre’s decision.
“We hope this will bring peace and development in the state,” the Delhi chief minister had tweeted.
Kejriwal's stand on the decision drew criticism from various quarters with people questioning the reason behind supporting full statehood for Delhi, but backing the loss of this status for J&K.
AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj had defended the party's stand, saying “Kashmir’s situation is “180 degrees opposite to that of Delhi”.
“We cannot compare Kashmir situation with that of Delhi & Pudducherry. Two-third of the original Kashmir is under occupation of Pakistan and China. There were around 150 incidents of infiltration that occurred last year in Kashmir. We cannot compare a peaceful state with a disturbed border state,” he said in a statement. |
