Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 21: Terming it a courageous leap of Prime Minister Narendra Modi led dispensation at the Centre to rectify the seven decades old blooper of separate status of J&K under Article 370, the former Union Minister, Prof. Chaman Lal Gupta observed that it was a strange situation that Congress being a national level party is badly failing to have any Kashmir policy and its top leaders were playing in contradictory tunes in accordance with their convenience.
While Dr. Karan Singh, Bhupinder Singh Hooda of Haryana and some others are favouring the repealing of the Article 370, Congress leaders including Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mani Shankar Ayyar, P. Chidambaram , Prof. Saifudin Soz and others are displaying their anger through highly vitriolic utterances and providing fodder to the anti India mill of the enemy operating from across the border, he added. He recalled that the measure was adopted by then Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru to appease his friend, Sheikh Mohd Abdullah with assurance to the agitated nationalists that it was temporary measure which would wither away with passage of time but events have proved that Nehru was wrong and visionary Pandit Prem Nath Dogra did hot agree to this assertion and had led a Satyagrah movement.
Prof. Gupta questioned the angry leaders of the Congress and their fellow travellers in the NC as also others that if they were so enamoured by Article 370, they should explain that why they did not made this obnoxious Article as permanent instead of retaining it as temporary provision, which was there in the statue book despite expiry of so many long years with the Congress-NC remaining in the saddle.
He said that this provision had led the State to many problems including radicalisation of Kashmir resulting in the slogans of secessionism and bloodshed to the extent of cleanse of minorities and woes of pain and sufferings to the common people.
Interacting with some veterans of 1952-53 Praja Parishad and the then activists of students agitation, Prof Gupta recalled that some student leaders were rusticated from the college just for having opposed the hoisting of National Conference Flag in the educational institutions and the students had to go for a hunger strike of over one month to get the rustication orders vacated.
Not only this as many as 15 youth were shot dead at various places during Satyagrah movement just for hoisting the National Tri-colour at various places during the movement. Thousands were put to face horrible situation during this period for raising the slogans of Ek Vidhaan, Ek Pradhan, Ek Nishan as also that of abrogation of Article 370.
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