Politics

Mehbooba Mufti labels those weakening Article 370 as anti-national

Speaker expunges remarks by Mehbooba Mufti on Article 370

February 2, 2017

Defames BJP stalwarts struggling for decades to abrogate Article 370

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]A[/dropcap]fter announcing special compensation package for the next of kin of protesters killed during the period of unrest in Kashmir valley between July 2016 to November 2016 Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has now labelled all those people working towards weakening Article 370 as ‘anti-nationals’.

No political party except the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is passionately fighting for abrogating Article 370 which grants special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian constitution.

By making this irresponsible statement that too from the floor of the state assembly Mehbooba Mufti has raised question marks over the core ideology of BJP.

Starting from its founders to present day leadership including Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been demanding an open debate on Article 370 to ascertain how much it has really helped the state of Jammu and Kashmir flourish and why it should not be done away.

No political party except the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is passionately fighting for abrogating Article 370 which grants special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian constitution.

Its founding fathers and sitting crop of leaders have all along struggled to ensure abrogation of Article 370 but in the absence of 2/3 majority in the Parliament the BJP led Union govt has not been able to implement its core ideology.

At the time of forming an alliance government with PDP in J&K both the parties had left behind contentious issues and decided to draft a common minimum programme which they later called Agenda of Alliance.

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]B[/dropcap]ut on Monday while speaking in the lower house of the state assembly Mehbooba Mufti stunned every one present in the house by claiming all those people who are working towards abrogating Article 370 are involved in biggest anti-national act.

Omar Abdullah while speaking in the state assembly had earlier stated, “those who among us who think that BJP has given up issue of Article 370 are mistaken. The BJP has understood that it can’t use Legislature for scrapping Article 370 but it will do it through judiciary.”

She was practically responding to the concerns raised by working President of National Conference Omar Abdullah who had earlier warned her of BJP’s machinations towards scrapping Article 370.

Omar Abdullah while speaking in the state assembly had earlier stated, “those who among us who think that BJP has given up issue of Article 370 are mistaken. The BJP has understood that it can’t use Legislature for scrapping Article 370 but it will do it through judiciary.”

Responding to this Mehbooba Mufti had said “I take Omar Sahib’s concern regarding Article 35-A in right earnest. I respect him, his view point. Yes, there are certain forces which believe that by eroding Article 35-A or weakening Article 370, through legal interventions Kashmir problem will end itself.” Nothing would be more anti-national than disturbing Article 370, she said.

Ironically, BJP which is running an alliance government with PDP in the state of Jammu and Kashmir had to face this embarrassing situation after she refused to withdraw her statement made on the floor of the state assembly.

Speaker expunged Mehbooba Mufti’s remarks?

The matters became worse for BJP when speaker of the state assembly Kavinder Gupta went ahead and expunged the Chief Minister’s remarks on the intervention of a BJP MLA.

This triggered fresh ruckus in the state assembly as the combined opposition claimed by expunging the remarks of Chief Minister that too at the behest of a BJP MLA the alliance partners are showing no confidence in each other and after this the position of the Chief Minister has become ‘untenable’.Though speaker later retracted his statement but the damage was already done as the trust deficit and poor floor management exposed the chinks in their armoury.

The opposition benches demanded clarification from the Chief Minister but she refused to entertain them.

Fragile alliance bond exposed?

After the fragile bond between the alliance partners was exposed on the floor of the state assembly Chief Minister too reacted in haste and decided to tender her resignation than withdrawing her statement.

The volatile situation was diffused by top brass of both the alliance partners by convincing Chief Minister to clarify her remarks in the state assembly.

Speaker also retracted his statement claiming he had not expunged CM’s remarks.

However, on Wednesday when the house met again opposition parties once again demanded a clarification from the Chief Minister.

In her absence from the house speaker tried to clarify her statement but the opposition parties were not satisfied with the reply.

BJP loses face as it failed to extract an apology from Mehbooba Mufti?

Following this the lower house witnessed unprecedented pandemonium with members throwing papers towards the speakers’ chair, hurling chairs in air and uprooting mike system to register their protest. Unhappy with the behaviour of the unruly legislators speaker adjourned the house sine die giving an escape route to the alliance partners to settle their issues outside the state assembly without disturbing the alliance govt.In this entire episode it is the BJP which has lost its face and moral authority as her own ally had snubbed her and defamed their political ideologues and instead of extracting an apology the party even failed to reiterate it cannot compromise with its core ideology for the sake of occupying hot seat.