New Delhi: Senior BJP leader L K Advani on Sunday pushed for repealing Article 370 of the Constitution, saying it would help Jammu and Kashmir’s full integration with India.
“The country eagerly awaits the day when Article 370 would be repealed and the two vidhans (Constitution) also would become one,” Advani wrote in his blog to commemorate the 60th death anniversary of party’s founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee.
Article 370 accords special Constitutional status on J&K and its abolition has been one of BJP’s core demands.
The party had put the issue on back burner in its attempt to woo more allies, most of whom are wary of its Hindutva agenda.
In his blog titled ‘Independent India’s First Martyr for National Integration’, the veteran leader said Mookerjee’s death in controversial circumstances triggered a series of developments which significantly promoted the process of national integration.
The permit system, which the then J&K Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah had introduced for non-state residents wishing to enter the state, was scrapped and state’s PM became a chief minister like the head of any other state.
Two pradhans (heads) became one, and though two nishans (symbols) continue still, the National Tricolour started flying in the state in a superior position, Advani wrote in the blog, giving credit to Mookerjee for extending the reach of the Supreme Court to the state.
Mookerji had given the slogan “ek desh mein do pradhan, do nishan, do vidhan, nahin challenge nahi challenge” during the first national meet of his party Bhartiya Jansangh, the erstwhile avatar of BJP, in 1953.
He was arrested by J&K police for entering the state without a permit and later died in detention in Srinagar due to “ill health”, a claim rejected by his supporters who termed it a conspiracy.
BJP calls off anti-corruption agitation: The ongoing ‘jail bharo’ agitation of BJP against the central and state governments has been suspended with immediate effect following massive destruction in Uttarakhand.
“The agitation which began on June 17 and was to continue till June 30 has been suspended with immediate effect following the natural calamity in Uttarakhand,” former state unit president of BJP, Surya Pratap Shahi told reporters here.
The BJP leader said that instead of carrying on with the anti-corruption protest, party workers from all over the state would collect goods required for relief and rescue of the affected people and organise special prayer meetings every day for those who lost their lives in the Himalayan tragedy.
Alleging lack of sensitivity in the ongoing relief and rescue operations by the Congress-led central and state governments, Shahi said that bodies of the victims have been found flowing in the rivers in Haridwar and Hastinapur. (PTI)