Senior BJP leader lK Advani on Friday advised J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to avoid using words like “cheating” and “deceiving” for the Opposition party whose stand on abrogation of Article 370 has been unequivocal, forthright and consistent. Advani's jibe at Abdullah evoked strong reaction from the Chief Minister who questioned the BJP leaders’ silence on Article 370 during NDA rule.
In a recent blog, Advani had pitched for abrogation of the Article 370, inviting strong criticism from Abdullah and Kashmiri outfits.
In the latest post on his blog on Friday, Advani wrote, “It is an issue on which we have not only been unequivocal, forthright and consistent from the time Jana Sangh was born in 1951 till today, but it is an issue for which the Party's Founder President laid down his own life, and for which tens of thousands of party activists have courted arrest and suffered in many other ways”.
Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, who founded the Jana Sangh was arrested in Jammu & Kashmir in 1952 when he tried to enter the State without a permit which was required then to go to there. He died under mysterious circumstances during his incarceration.
Advani further added, “Since our very first all India session at Kanpur, we have been championing complete integration of J&K State with India”. The BJP leader claimed even the Congress party — other than Jawaharlal
Nehru and a few other leaders — were strongly opposed to giving a special status to
Jammu & Kashmir.
Advani quotes from a book by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's Private Secretary to argue that even the first Home Minister was against Article 370, but kept his views in the background out of his regard for Nehru. “Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister of Jammu &Kashmir State, has every right to disagree with the BJP on matters relating to J&K. But I would advise him never to use offensive language and words like ‘cheating’ and ‘deceiving’ in that context,” Advani said on his blog.
The BJP leader reminded Abdullah that Jana Sangh was not even formed when the special status was given to Jammu & Kashmir.
“However, if there was any provision in the Draft Constitution which had almost the entire Congress party up in arms against it, it was this provision. “This issue was considered by the Constituent Assembly in November, 1949 just two months before the Constitution was formally adopted,” he said.
However, Abdullah hit back at BJP leader saying he should explain his silence on abrogation of Article 370 between 1998 and 2004 when NDA was ruling at the Centre. “Instead of advising me to show restraint, Advaniji should devote some blog space to explain his silence over Article 370 between 1998-2004,” Omar wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter.
“Perhaps he can also blog about what constitutional mechanism he plans to follow to repeal Article 370. I might learn something from his wisdom,” Omar added.