Jammu and Kashmir Congress president Ghulam Ahmad Mir Sunday said that Article 370 is the “strongest bridge between Kashmir and the rest of the country” and “nobody can think of abolishing it”.
Mir said this while talking to media-persons on thesidelines of a party convention in Bandipora district.
Asked about the Congress party’s position on protection ofArticles 35-A and 370, he said: “Our position is already defined. It was solelybecause of the Congress party that Jammu and Kashmir has a special status byway of Article 370”.
“The Congress party’s stand is that this Article (370) isthe strongest bridge between the state and the rest of the country and nobodycan think of demolishing or abolishing it,” he said.
He said the Congress party’s policy of “adopting” the peopleof Jammu and Kashmir “has been there from the last 70 years”.
“There has been a close contact and sense of belongingbetween the Congress and the people of Jammu and Kashmir right from JawaharlalNehru’s time. Even the Congress governments had adopted policies for thewelfare of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said. He said whatever theCongress party had done for the welfare of people of J&K during its rule”was demolished by the BJP during its rule in the past five years”.
Meanwhile, several workers from BJP, NC and PDP joined the Congress during its convention in Dangarpora area of Sopore on Sunday.
The convention was presided over by Ghulam Ahmad Mir, while Congress leaders Haji Abdur Rashid Dar, GhulamNabiMonga and Usman Majeed and others were present on the occasion. Addressing the convention, Mir welcomed the new entrants into the Congress party.
He said Congress is the only party which has served the people “to the best of its ability”. “The party feels duty-bound to ensure the wellbeing of the people in all three regions of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.