Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has rightly stated that the restoration of article 370 back to Jammu Kashmir is a remote possibility in near future. He said in a public meeting on Wednesday that he did not see his party getting 300 seats in the next Lok Sabha elections as things politically stand currently.
Azad is an old stalwart of the political arena and he understands the politics well. He vehemently opposed the Bills that scrapped the Article 370 and 35-A and also the reorganisation of the erstwhile J&K state, in and outside the Parliament.
Justifying his silence on Article 370 in public, Azad said only the Supreme Court, where the matter is pending adjudication or the Union Government can restore it. Since the BJP-led central government abrogated Article 370, it won’t restore it, and the Apex Court has yet to decide the matter thus the possibilities are remote for reverting back to August 05, 2019 position.
It is only the Congress party that has been crying foul over the restoration of the contentious article back to the constitution for which they required two third majority in both the houses of the Parliament – an impossible preposition as of now. “And when will we have 300 MPs to form a government on our own? So, I cannot promise to do it [restore Article 370] as we will have to get 300 MPs in 2024. Come what may. May God get us 300 [MPs], but at present I do not see it. That is why I will not make any false promises and avoid talking about Article 370,” he said.
Currently on a tour of Poonch and Rajouri, Azad had recently said in Kashmir that it was irrelevant to talk on Article 370, saying his main demands were restoration of statehood and holding of early assembly elections in J&K.
His statement had drawn criticism from NC vice-president Omar Abdullah, who said the senior Congress leader has accepted defeat even before the Supreme Court took up hearing in the matter.
The National Conference leaders after holding a low-profile initially after their release from the house confinement have upped their ante for restoring pre-August 05, 2019 position of J&K.
Reacting to the Omar’s accusations without naming, Azad said he has been opposed to the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the state into two UTs since the day the Bills were introduced in the Rajya Sabha.
No doubt, Azad had been speaking against depriving J&K state of its special status for two reasons – first it was his party position and second he belonged to Jammu Kashmir and he represented the state in Rajya Sabha and was state chief minister.
Interestingly, the National Conference leadership too know it well but it cannot afford to abandon the issue as on this political plank, NC survives.
The party has already knocked the door of the Supreme Court of India by filing a petition to declare the change in the status as null or void. Azad has said that his party’s fight with the government is that when Article 370 was abrogated and state bifurcated, the resolution should have come from the J&K state Assembly and that Parliament had no jurisdiction for affecting an amendment in the Article 370 of the constitution in the absence of Assembly of J&K. NC, therefore, should have patience and wait till the decision of the Supreme Court comes. Till date they should not vitiate the atmosphere in J&K.
