Joining the chorus against supposed attempts to abrogate Article 370 that guarantees special status to Jammu & Kashmir, the Marxist Communists on Monday challenged the authority of Parliament to do away with the exclusive provision.
Three-time legislator of the CPI(M) and State secretary MY Tarigami, who is influential leader of the Awami Mutahida Mahaz an amalgam of smaller mainstream groups, castigated the BJP for raking up the sensitive issue even before settling on the power chair.
“Article 370 is a basic feature of the Constitution of India and the Parliament has no authority to abrogate it,” Tarigami said at a Press conference here. He said the previous regimes in Jammu & Kashmir and New Delhi were responsible for weakening the Article through ‘unconstitutional presidential ordinances’.
“The successive Governments have eroded the Article 370 to the extent that it has remained a namesake. All those amendments were illegal and unconstitutional and led to the uncertainty in the State which eventually gave birth to militancy in Kashmir,” he said.
Tarigami alleged that Narendra Modi-led BJP was trying to trifurcate the State besides attempting to change the demography. “Talks of making Jammu a separate State and granting Union Territory status to ladakh is part of the same plan,” he said, adding such designs would be defeated by the people of Jammu & Kashmir who have stood against attempts to divide them on religious and regional basis. He said the the erosion of the Article 370 has undermined the relation of J&K with the Union of India.