More than 24 hours after the Narendra Modi government announced the scrapping of Article 370, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi has spoken out, calling the action “an abuse of executive power”.
Rahul tweeted on Tuesday, “National integration isn’t furthered by unilaterally tearing apart J&K, imprisoning elected representatives and violating our Constitution. This nation is made by its people, not plots of land. This abuse of executive power has grave implications for our national security.”
Although critical of the scrapping of Article 370 and reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories, the Congress has been criticised for the perception that its response has been ineffective. While party MP Ghulam Nabi Azad led vocal criticism of the move in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, the Congress chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, Bhubaneswar Kalita, resigned on Monday. Kalita reportedly claimed the opposition of the Congress to the revocation of Article 370 was “suicide”.
Congress MP Manish Tewari, not Rahul, led the party's charge against the scrapping of Article 370 in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Tewari termed as “unconstitutional” the manner in which the BJP government bifurcated the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rahul's sister, who has been outspoken in her criticism of the BJP over the Sonbhadra massacre and Unnao rape survivor's accident, is yet to publicly tweet or comment on the developments in Jammu and Kashmir.