Article 370 scrapped: Split wide open in the Congress

Bengaluru: The split is wide open in the oldest party of India, the Congress, thanks to the lack of unity in relation to the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A.

The disharmony in the party was evident when Bhubaneshwar Kalita, the chief whip of the party in the Rajya Sabha quit over the party’s stance on the issue.

That wasn’t all. After the resolution was passed in the Lok Sabha, no less a person than Jyotiraditya Scindia, considered to be close to Rahul Gandhi, the former Congress president, tweeted in favour of Modi Sarkar.

In his tweet, he said, "I support the move on #JammuAndKashmir & #Ladakh and its full integration into union of India...the move is in country's interest."

Later, as if adding insult to injury, India Today quoted veteran leader Janardan Dwivedi, Anil Shastri, Deependra Hooda, UP MLA Aditi Singh and Ranjeet Ranjan voicing their opinion lauding the Centre's move to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcate the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories.

Now, more interestingly, Adhir Ranjan, the leader of Lok Sabha needlessly questioning the “internal” aspect of the issue.

He had said, “You say that it is an internal matter, but it is being monitored since 1948 by the UN, is that an internal matter? We signed the Shimla Agreement and Lahore Declaration, was that an internal matter or bilateral?"

Boxed into a corner over the embarrassment, Congressmen rushed to save themselves some honour. But the damage had been done.

Kengal Renu, a Congress spokesperson condemned the statements outright and said it was wrong on the part of the leader to have made such a statement and further said that he should apologise.

On the issue of the chief whip resigning, he said it was the ploy of the BJP to buy out their MPs and that they should be questioned, not the Congress over such resignations.

 

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