Sources said leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, Deepender Hooda and R P N Singh told the CWC meeting that public sentiment was in favour of abrogation of Article 370 and the party will have to factor in the mood of the nation.Hours after the BJP’s government decision to render Article 370 ineffective and bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir was ratified by Parliament, the Congress Working Committee Tuesday nuanced the party’s position in the wake of several leaders, most of them young, publicly backing the Government move.
The CWC issued a statement after a three-hour meeting that did not question the move but focused on the manner in which the change was brought.
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Sources said leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, Deepender Hooda and R P N Singh told the CWC meeting that public sentiment was in favour of abrogation of Article 370 and the party will have to factor in the mood of the nation. Scindia Tuesday and Hooda Monday tweeted their support to the move before the CWC meeting. Interestingly, most of the public comments in support of the Government move have come from the young brigade.
“Leaders spoke freely and frankly. We are a democratic party. We discussed every aspect. Not one but many interpretations and finally the distilled wisdom is reflected in the statement,” a CWC member told The Indian Express. Many of the young leaders said they can understand the problems in Kashmir but argued the mood in the country is different. They said the party will have to factor in that sentiment and craft a response keeping that in mind.
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Accordingly, the CWC statement said Article 370 “deserved to be honoured until it was amended, after consultation with all sections of the people, and strictly in accordance with the Constitution of India.”
Lok Sabha voted Tuesday to clear the J&K Reorganisation Bill and a resolution taking away the special status. (LSTV)The CWC, the statement, said “deplores the unilateral, brazen and totally undemocratic manner in which Article 370….was abrogated and the State of Jammu and Kashmir was dismembered by misinterpreting the provisions of the Constitution. Every principle of Constitutional law, States’ rights, Parliamentary procedure and democratic governance was violated.”
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The statement said: “Article 370 was conceived and crafted by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and B R Ambedkar, assisted by N Gopalaswamy Ayyangar and V P Menon. Article 370 is the Constitutional recognition of the terms of the Instrument of Accession between the State of Jammu & Kashmir and India. It deserved to be honoured until it was amended, after consultation with all sections of the people, and strictly in accordance with the Constitution of India.”
“What the BJP government accomplished yesterday in the Rajya Sabha and today in the Lok Sabha has grave implications going well beyond J&K and calls into question the very idea of India being a Union of States. Jammu & Kashmir acceded to India as one State and no government has the power to change its status or divide it or reduce any part of it to a Union Territory,” it said.
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Reflecting the muddle within party ranks, several Congress leaders since yesterday and through the day spoke out welcoming the Centre’s decision to revoke special status to Jammu and Kashmir. “I support the move on Jammu and Kashmir & Ladakh and its full integration into union of India. Would have been better if constitutional process had been followed. No questions could have been raised then. Nevertheless, this is in our country’s interest and I support this,” Scindia tweeted.
“The J&K gamble by the Central government has received popular national support and seems to be consistent with the national mood although history and future alone can attest to its wisdom,” former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar told The Indian Express, signaling the deep division in the party.
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“No doubt the people at large are perceiving revocation of Article 370 as a bold decision by the NDA govt not realising perhaps that the consequences could be fraught with danger. The future of J&K seems more uncertain today than ever before. Hope I’m wrong with 370 having gone. Hope the decision of the BJP govt to revoke Article 370 is meant for the well-being of the Kashmiri people & for everlasting peace in the Valley and not in view of the forthcoming Assembly elections in some states. Congress must sense the mood of the people…then take a stand. The people are totally with the govt on this issue. We opposed Mandal and lost UP and Bihar and should not risk now of losing India,” Anil Shastri said. Shastri is the son of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
The J&K flag flies with the Tricolour at the Secretariat in Srinagar Tuesday. Under new law, it will go. (Express photo by Shuaib Masoodi)Kuldeep Bishnoi, a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee, welcomed the “removal” of Article 370 calling it a “good decision.”
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“When this Article was implemented, then Nehru had called it temporary. My personal view is that it is a welcome step. This amendment will be successful only when we are able to convince Kashmiris that they are a part of Akhand Bharat,” he said.
“Nation First! Opposing for the heck of opposing is no virtue. Join in, congratulate the Government for taking a bold step towards integrating India,” said Jyoti Mirdha. Arguing that abrogation of Article 370 was a matter of “national satisfaction,” veteran Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi had Monday said that “better late, but an independence era mistake has been rectified.”
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Several others in the Congress in private admitted that the “public mood in the country” was in favour of abrogation of Article 370 and the party was caught off-guard. Many leaders said the party could not have supported scrapping of the special status to J&K not just because of “historical reasons” but also the fact that J&K has been reduced to a Union Territory. Rajya Sabha MP Pradeep Bhattacharya, for instance, said: “If it is only about Article 370, it is something different. It is not just Article 370….They have reduced the state into a Union Territory. Why we will accept that?”
Slam means rather than end
Clearly, the Congress has sensed that there isn’t much public opposition outside J&K to the abrogation. On the backfoot on the nationalism issue during the election campaign, a wary leadership has therefore chosen to attack the means rather than the end.
“The resignation of Bhubaneshwar Kalita (who was the Congress’s chief whip in Rajya Sabha) should be seen as symptomatic as deeper divisions within the party regarding our response to the Government’s decision,” Ashwani Kumar said.
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“The spectre of a party staring at leadership vacuum, unsure of itself and the support of its allies on key issues in these challenging times is indeed saddening. A 135-year-old party with a glorious history in the service of the nation is unable to find a leader or a set of leaders to give it direction,” he added. Kalita’s resignation yesterday came as a shock to the party as he had – minutes before resigning – signed a notice demanding a discussion in Rajya Sabha on the Kashmir situation. As the House met, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu announced Kalita has submitted his resignation.
The division within was underlined when Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad hit out at those in the party backing the Government decision. Azad said: “Those who do not know the history of Jammu and Kashmir and that of the Congress, I have nothing to do with them. Let them first learn the history of Jammu and Kashmir and that of the Congress and then remain in Congress.”
In fact, Congress’s Manish Tewari, while speaking on the J&K Reorganisation Bill in Lok Sabha, betrayed the confusion.
When Home Minister Amit Shah and then Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla asked whether he was in favour or against scrapping of the special status under Article 370, Tewari replied: “There is a book in English according to which everything cannot be black or white. There are 50 shades of grey in between.” This was a reference to the erotic romance novel Fifty Shades of Grey.
Interestingly, Rahul too did not make any specific mention of Article 370. In two tweets, he said “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.”
At Lal Chowk in Srinagar Tuesday. (Express photo by Deeptiman Tiwary)“Kashmir’s mainstream political leaders have been jailed at secret locations. This is unconstitutional & undemocratic. It’s also short sighted and foolish because it will allow terrorists to fill the leadership vaccum created by GOI. The imprisoned leaders must be released,” he said in another tweet.
Kumar was scathing. He said it was time the party “revisit our internal processes to ensure easy accessibility of the leadership at all levels to the party workers and to invest the party cadres with dignity and a sense of belonging so that they can give their best to the party. It is self-evident that in the prevailing circumstances and consistent with the democratic aspirations of the people, the party cannot function on the basis of diktats without the full participation and involvement of party persons. Indeed, the days of decision-making by fiat are over.”
