BJP attacks Digvijaya over his 'will review Article 370 abrogation' remark

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has sparked off yet another heated controversy over his remark to a Pakistani journalist that his party would review the abrogation of Article 370 provisions if Congress came to power at the Centre.

Several BJP leaders stepped in to severely chastise Digvijaya for his “mindset”. “It is precisely this mindset of the Congress party which has sown the seeds of separatism in Kashmir and facilitated Pak designs in the Valley,” tweeted Union Minister Jitendra Singh. He shared a clip of the chat posted by the BJP’s social media chief Amit Malviya.

The clip shows the Congress leader referring to former prime minister and BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s approach of ‘Insaniyat (humanity), Kashmiriyat, jamhooriyat (democracy)’ for Kashmir.

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“Democracy was not there in Kashmir when they revoked Article 370. Then ‘insaniyat’ was not there because they had put everyone behind bars. And Kashmiriyat is something, which is basically the fundamental of secularism… because in a Muslim majority state, there was a Hindu king, and both worked together. In fact, reservation in government services was given to Kashmiri Pandits.”

“Losing the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir is extremely sad decision. And the Congress party would definitely like to have a re-look at the decision,” he is heard saying.

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Last year, just before the elections for the district development councils in the UT, four main regional parties and two national parties — the Congress and CPI(M) — had issued a joint statement, saying they would “tirelessly struggle to get back the special status and restore the Constitutional guarantees forcibly taken away from J&K”.

The six political parties, including the National Conference (NC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Conference, Awami National Conference, said they stood by the Gupkar Declaration, which was issued last August.

“Digvijay ji thanks that journalist for such a question. I request the Congress party to change its name INC to ANC (Anti National Club House). This is such a clubhouse in which all the people started hating India today while hating Modi ji,” a media report quoted BJP’s Sambit Patra.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan demanded a reply from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. “Kashmir is an integral part of India. It was the Congress that committed the sin of bringing Article 370. What does Congress want to reconsider? Do they want to bring back separatists?” he asked.

Digviyaja Singh responded to the criticism in a series of tweets. “Millions of Congress Workers sympathisers and all those who are opposed to BJPModiShah regime would fight every inch to vote out this disastrous regime,” he said.

“Perhaps, illiterate people don’t understand the difference between ‘shall’ and ‘consider’,” Singh said in another tweet.