J&K's head chopped off, identity lost: Azad on Article 370

Opposition parties termed the scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and its bifurcation into two union territories as a “black blot”.

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday (August 5) charged that the state’s head, considered as India’s crown, has been “chopped off” and its identity removed.

Various parties like the Congress, TMC, DMK, NCP, AAP, RJD, and left parties opposed the said resolution as well as a bill to bifurcate the state into two union territories. Opposing the move, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “I had never imagined that the head of the state which is India’s crown will be chopped off.”

“You have made light of the state of J&K,” he said, charging that it was a matter of shame that the Centre had reduced the state to a non-entity with Lt. Governor’s rule. “It will be a black blot on India’s history when this Bill is passed (in Parliament),” Azad said.

Also read: Jammu and Kashmir re-organisation bill passed in Rajya Sabha

He said that an “atom bomb” exploded in the House when Home Minister (Amit Shah) spoke on Monday, claiming that the “state was being removed from the map of India” by being bifurcated and converted into a Union Territory.

He observed that people in the state of Jammu and Kashmir stood by the country’s security forces and did not choose Pakistan despite it having the same religion. Instead, they accepted the secularism of India, he said.

“Today, you have again laid the foundation to disintegrate. Integration does not take place through legislation, it happens through the heart, Azad said.

He dared the Government to bring a Bill to convert Gujarat into a Union Territory, saying it should not take things lightly, and accused the Centre of muzzling the state’s history while being “drunk” with power.

Also read: Repealing Article 370 a cardinal blunder: P Chidambaram