The country needed to utilise the “golden opportunity” to get rid of Articles 370 and 35A by choosing the BJP in the upcoming election, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Indresh Kumar said here on Wednesday.
Mr. Kumar, who is also the national convener of the RSS-affiliated Muslim Rashtriya Manch, termed the Articles “divisive” and “inimical” to both the unity of the Indian people and the Constitution.
A day after the Congress released its manifesto, which stated it would not change the government’s constitutional position on Jammu and Kashmir if voted to power, Mr. Kumar attacked the party for “weakening” the security apparatus of the country continuing to allow “separate status” to the State and exposing its “anti-democracy, anti-people and anti-nation” nature.
“This is a golden opportunity to relegate Articles 370 and 35A to history. People say similar rules and laws are in place in other States too, such as in the Northeast, but that is really not the case. No other Indian State has its separate flag, property rights, citizenship rights; no other State has its own Constitution or a provision for having its own PM,” said Mr. Kumar.
Changed outlook
Arguing that “things have changed after the Pulwama attack and the Balakot surgical strike”, Mr. Kumar said that Jammu and Kashmir had now changed its outlook towards the BJP for good.
“These two provisions have become the reason for division among the people of the State as well as the nation... Support for these is not felt across Jammu and Kashmir as politicians there claim...if there is support for terror in some quarters there is an equal strain of Indianisation too,” he argued.
Positive response
The Congress, he argued, had “all along kept Muslims out of the mainstream” in the name of minority politics.
“They are equal partners in the development of the country. We are trying to impress this fact upon them and our efforts are getting a positive response from the Muslim community,” he added.