Senior Congress leaders — P Chidambaram and Digvijay Singh — have come under attack by the BJP for their latest comments on abrogation of special status to Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.
A day after senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said that Jammu &Kashmir was stripped off its special status because it is a Muslim-majority State, several Union Ministers and several BJP leaders slammed the former Home Minister and said the comments are regrettable and unfortunate.
While Chidambaram said the BJP would not have "snatched away" the special status had Jammu &Kashmir been a Hindu-dominated state, Digvijay Singh came under line of fire for stating that India may lose Kashmir if the Government is not careful, a statement dismissed by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The Law Minister accused Chidambaram of making a very irresponsible and provocative statement while Union Ministers Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Giriraj Singh regretted the fact that Congress' appeasement mentality still exist.
Prasad said the decision taken by the Government is in the interest of the people of Jammu & Kashmir, and their development. Hitting out at the Congress, he asked if it was not true that over 42,000, mostly Muslims, had died in the Valley during decades of violence.
Defending the decision on Article 370, Naqvi said the Government has rectified a very big mistake made decades ago by the Congress. "What he has said is an attempt to give communal colour to the issue even though the decision is in national interest," he said. Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the Congress was giving the issue a communal angle.
Alleging that BJP revoked the Article with its "muscle power", Chidambaram had said the situation in Jammu and Kashmir was unstable and that international news agencies were covering the unrest, but not Indian media houses.
Prasad also took to task the former MP CM Digvijay Singh and remarked the more Digvijay Singh speaks on this issue, BJP's vote share increases. "I want to ask Sonia ji (Congress President Sonia Gandhi), now that she has become Congress president again if this is Digvijay Singh speaking or it is their party's line as well," Prasad said.
Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said: "Unfortunately, former finance minister P Chidambaram and Digvijay Singh are trying to incite Muslim community against the government on the issue (of Jammu and Kashmir)."