Srinagar, July 10: Senior BJP leader and MoS in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dr Jitendra Singh on Monday said Congress must thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi for abrogating Article 370 which was a temporary provision in the Constitution of India. He also said that the democratic setup was for the first time established in Jammu & Kashmir after the BJP government conducted three-tier Panchayat elections in the UT.
“Congress failed to remove Article 370 during its tenure but the BJP rolled it back as it was a temporary provision,” Dr Singh said while talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
“The grassroots level democracy flourished for the first time in the history of J&K. This was missing for the past 70 years,” the union MoS said. “Democracy didn’t exist in J&K earlier. Today, democracy is at the grassroots level and this is for the first time in the past 70 years.”
Dr Jitendra said the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is on record in the constituent assembly that Article 370 was temporary and would be abolished. “But Congress couldn’t remove it. In fact, they should thank the BJP for fulfilling something promised by Congress,” he said.
On the violence in West Bengal, he said that “political hypocrisy” has come to the fore. “Those who used to accuse the Centre of killing people are themselves killing civilians. There is a governance failure and state terrorism in West Bengal,” he said.
“In a democratic step, there is no place for state terrorism,” Dr Singh said. He, however, evaded the query on Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
(KNO)
