Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today questioned "silence" of Narendra Modi to his challenge of a debate on Article 370 and said those who want its abrogation have little knowledge about it and are "deceiving" people as polls are nearing.
Omar Abdullah. AP image
In a passionate defence of the portion of Constitution, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Omar said it is working as a bridge between the state and rest of the country. He was speaking at Legislative Assembly here today. "He (Modi) remained silent," Omar said over his challenge to hold a debate on Article 370 "anytime, anywhere" he chooses to.
Omar claimed that the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee "never demanded" abrogation of Article 370. "When there was time to abrogate Article 370 then you did not do it. Now that elections are being held, again you want to rake up the issue for vote bank politics-- it is irony that Modi comes to Jammu and says hold a debate on Article 370," he said.
"If they want a debate on Article 370 with me, let them tell me where and when they want to talk about it. Even if they want to hold the debate in Ahmadabad, we are ready for the debate anytime," Omar had said at a public rally in
Srinagar on December 6.
Regarding discussion over the Article as called by Modi, Omar said,"I was a fool that I said I was ready to hold discussion."
"Big misunderstandings get created in the minds of people, particularly those whom we have more expectations. Those (Modi) who dream of sitting on the big chairs in the country, also do not have knowledge about Article 370, what is it," Omar said. Modi, in a December rally at Jammu, had called for discussion over it whether it was beneficial to state or not. "Article 370 is working as a bridge (between JK and rest of the country). Through that bridge, JK is connected to rest of the country," he said.
"They will say that due to Article 370 there is a discrimination with womenfolk and that people from outside cannot buy land under Article 370. They have little knowledge about it and that you do not know Article 370 and the state
subject laws," Omar said.
"Although, people from outside cannot buy land in JK but it has nothing to do with Article 370. It is not a programme of this state. You cannot blame Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah for it," the chief minister.
"If people from outside cannot purchase land in Jammu and Kashmir, it was the decision of the then Maharaja of the
state, it was because that the people of Jammu at that point of time feared that rich people from Punjab will buy them, it is a decision much before independence and we have preserved it and will preserve it," Omar said.
"I tell to all the people that unless and until the flag of National Conference and Congress will keep high, nobody can dare to scrap the Article 370 and those people who want to scrap it, are only deceiving people and doing nothing else," he added.
"It (Article 370) is a very sensitive relation between state of Jammu and Kashmir and rest of India, sensitive not because we are emotionally weak, not because we do not consider JK to be part of this country or considering ourselves lower than any other part of the country. Sensitive because of the relations of this state with the rest of the
country through an act of Constitution-- Article 370".
PTI
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