The Congress on Friday demanded the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir along with the implementation of Article 371 of the Constitution.
Addressing a press conference in Jammu, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh in response to a question said the bill brought and passed in August 2019 on Jammu and Kashmir was not done in a democratic way.
“The bill was passed without discussion and dialogue and was passed by a brute majority,’’ he said. “Jammu and Kashmir was a state. It was a full-fledged state. It turned into a Union Territory. We are against it.”
Flanked by senior Congress leaders like party’s J&K in-charge Rajni Patol, JKPCC chief Vikar Rasool, Dijvijay Singh and others, he said the party wants democracy to return to the erstwhile state.
On the restoration of Article 370, he said, “You are talking about Article 370 and I am talking about Article 371. Under Article 371, many states of our country and many areas of our country are given special provisions.”
“Regions like Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and some areas of Assam, some areas of Karnataka-Hyderabad region have special provisions under Article 371,’’ he said in reply to a question about Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti’s demand for the restoration of Article 370.
He said in states like Nagaland, Article 371 states that no act of Parliament would apply to the state of Nagaland in matters relating to religious or social practices of Nagas, Naga customary law and procedure, and ownership and transfer of land and its resources.
He said the resumption of the yatra today got delayed due to the rain. “We walked despite the rain and thousands of men, women and children and youth joined us,’’ he said.
About why the DSS leader has welcomed the Yatra and they are thankful to him and replying to a related question about that why Abdullah, during whose tenure Kashmiri Pandits killings took place in Kashmir, the Congress leader said don’t forget who was the Prime Minister of the country at the time.
He said that today the BJP is in full control of the state and yet targeted killings of Kashmiri pandits are taking place. “We share their pain and the employment package they got was during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's tenure,” he said. He said the Congress is for Hindu-Muslim unity and they are taking the same message to Srinagar.
He said the Bharat Jodo Yatra is against economic inequality, social polarisation and political dictatorship.
