New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge feels that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir needs a new narrative after the Supreme Court upheld the removal of Article 370 from the erstwhile border state.
Article 370, which gave special status to the erstwhile state of J&K, was removed by an act of the Parliament on Aug 5, 2019, months after the Modi government won a second term at the Centre. The government also created two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, out of the erstwhile border state.
According to party insiders, the Congress chief has instructed the J&K unit to discuss the fallout of the top court’s order and assess the ground-level impact so that a national view over the issue can be formed. Following the directive, a meeting of the Political Affairs Committee of the J&K Congress will be held in Jammu on December 16. Later, the party’s executive committee will also meet to hold deliberations over the issue the same day.
“The Supreme Court’s order over removal of Article 370 has closed the chapter over special status to the former state. We now need to have a new narrative. The people are making their own assessments but we as a national political party also need to assess the ground-level impact of the top court’s decision. There is no expected celebration in Jammu since the top court’s order came on Monday. Instead, there is complete silence. The reality is sinking and the people are gradually realizing what they lost. We need to understand that silence to build a new narrative which we would like to share with the people of the UT,” Congress Working Committee member and former J&K Congress chief Ghulam Ahmed Mir told ETV Bharat.
“The party’s Political Affairs Committee will meet on December 16 in Jammu to discuss the fallout of the removal of Article 370. The party’s Executive Committee will discuss the issue separately the same day,” he said. According to the CWC member, the removal of Article 370 is an emotive issue for the people of the UT and the BJP would try to derive political mileage after the top court’s order ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“The removal of Article 370 was and remains an emotive issue for the people of UT. The issue finds resonance across the country. The removal of Article 370 had been on the BJP’s agenda for decades and they would try to derive political mileage over it in the 2024 national elections. Once we discuss it at the party level on December 16, more such consultations will be held across the UT. Gradually, the issue will have to be discussed at the national level so that a view around the new narrative is formed and shared with the people ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” said Mir.
According to the CWC member, the Congress stands by the CWC resolution which questioned the process through which Article 370 was removed and denied suggestions that the grand old party was on a backfoot over the issue. “The Congress is not on the backfoot after the Supreme Court order. We stand by the CWC resolution over the issue. But there are a lot of technical issues involved which common people do not understand. I think all those issues need to be discussed among the INDIA alliance so that the entire opposition speaks in one voice,” said Mir.
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