Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Sunday rejected BJP general secretary Ram Madhav’s diatribe on Art 370 as uncouth, saying the statement is reflective of BJP’s flawed and untaught version of history.
Party’s additional general secretary Dr Sheikh MustafaKamaal while rejecting the statement of Ram Madhav said, “The provision ofArticle 370 was not given to us by the then Prime Minister Nehru, but the thenConstituent Assembly of India. The motion was supported by the then Home MinisterVallab Bhai Patel, and then Industries Minister Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. Inaddition to that Art 370 is powered by the conditional instrument of accessionpreviously signed by Maharaja Hari Singh. Moreover the state of Jammu and Kashmir didn’t sign any merger paperswhich were signed by other princely states. Our erstwhile head of stateMaharaja only signed document of accession subject to conditions. Subsequentlythe state and the Centre entered into an accord, the Delhi agreement of 1952 asit is referred to as. The accord was ratified by the Parliament of India andsubsequently by the constituent assembly of the state. As such any unscrupulousfiddling with special status of the state will inversely hit the bond of thestate with the union. Likewise, Art 1 of the Constitution of India which dealswith the territories of the union is also applicable to the state through Art370. The Art 370 of Indian constitutionmirrors the Instrument of Accession. On April 03 2018, the honorable SupremeCourt also opined that the Art 370 has acquired a permanent status.”
While underscoring the necessity of resolving the issue ofJ&K, Kamaal said that Government of India should stop shying away fromsolving the issue. “The UN observers group in Srinagar and Muzaffarabad isreflective of various harsh realities, which are of historical nature and canleast be brushed under carpet. The state of Jammu and Kashmir belongs to itspeople; moreover any mischief to tinker with the special position of the statewill have far reaching consequences. The people of Jammu and Kashmir havetraditionally guarded their identity with zeal. Any attempt to fiddle with theArticle will also be analogous to a constitutional coup.”