Rama Krishna Sangem
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has challenged the Congress or any other opposition party to bring back Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. While responding to a question on opposition leaders declaring they will bring back Article 370, Modi told News18 that whoever understands India’s constitution, federal structure, and what is in jurisdiction, will not say such things.
The prime minister said that bringing back Article 370 is not in the opposition’s jurisdiction. Modi added that even if he is the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, he cannot do it. He asserted that the Centre and state governments will do what is in their ambit. “But fooling the people is a trend nowadays – to keep them in the dark. That’s why they keep saying anything at all,” the prime minister said.
Modi dared the Congress to hold a presser and declare that the party will restore Article 370. Continuing his attack on the grand old party, PM Modi said that the Congress talks ‘big’ about the Constitution and Babasaheb Ambedkar.
“But Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution was not applicable for the entire nation. For 70 years, the Indian Constitution was not applicable in Jammu and Kashmir,” he told News18. The prime minister said that Dalits and Valmikis are getting reservations for the first time in J&K after Article 370 abrogation.
Statehood for J&K soon
On August 5, 2019, the Narendra Modi government abrogated Article 370, thereby ending the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. The erstwhile state was bifurcated into two Union territories- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
On December 11 last year, the Supreme Court upheld the Article 370 abrogation, rejecting the argument that it was a permanent provision and directed the holding of elections in the region by September 2024 and the restoration of the statehood at the earliest.
Earlier this month, PM Modi at a rally in J&K’s Udhampur, said,”Time is not far when assembly elections will be held in Jammu and Kashmir and statehood will be restored”.
