Digvijay Singh’s Comment on ‘Relook’ at Article 370 Revocation in Jammu and Kashmir Draws Fury of BJP
BHOPAL / Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh’s comments in a clubhouse conversation that the revocation of Article 370 and stripping Jammu and Kashmir of statehood was an “extremely sad” decision and his party will have a “relook” at the issue have triggered a row, with the BJP accusing him of speaking against India and in agreement with Pakistan.
Digvijay’s remarks to a person, who the BJP said was a journalist of Pakistani origin, was seized by the BJP leaders to hit out at the Congress with its spokesperson Sambit Patra demanding statements from Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi on the issue.
“The decision of revoking Article 370 and reducing the statehood of J&K is extremely, I would say, a sad decision, and the Congress party would certainly have a relook on the issue,” Singh said, according to bits of conversation available on social media.
He was responding to a question about the “way forward” on the issue once the Modi government is gone.
As the BJP attacked him, Singh posted a tweet in Hindi in an apparent jibe at the ruling party.
“This bunch of illiterate people cannot probably differentiate between ‘shall’ and ‘consider’,” the Rajya Sabha MP said.
“Democracy was not there in Kashmir when they revoke article 370. Then Insaniyat was not there because they had put everyone behind bars. And Kashmiriyat is something that is basically the fundamentals of secularism because in a Muslim majority state, there was a Hindu Raja and both were together. In fact, the reservation in Kashmir was given to the Kashmiri Pandits in government services”, the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said in the clubhouse conversation, that was gone viral on social media by BJP’s IT in-charge, Amit Malviya.
Singh has not only stated the first time about revoking article 370 and removing statehood from Kashmir but also raised these issues before the media several times. Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has too remarked statement on this issue.
Attacking him, Patra told reporters, “We have all seen how Digvijay Singh is spitting venom on India and speaking in agreement with Pakistan. This is the same person who had dubbed the Pulwama attack as an accident and described the 26/11 Mumbai attack as an RSS conspiracy.”
The BJP leader cited old comments of other Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Mani Shankar Aiyar, to allege that Singh’s remarks were part of a larger pattern of the party being “hand in glove” with Pakistan.
The Congress would go to the extent of collaborating with China and Pakistan to spread “hate” against Modi and India, he alleged.
Patra asked Sonia Gandhi and Rahul to make their party’s stand clear on the issue.
Union ministers Giriraj Singh and Kiren Rijiju were among other BJP leaders who targeted the Congress in their tweets over the issue.
