Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Aug 16 : Hitting out at Kashmir-centric politicians who often cite the so called “Vajpayee policy” for Kashmir, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that Atal Bihari Vajpayee never approved of “special status” for Kashmir.
Delivering the “1st Anniversary Memorial Lecture” on “Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the context of abrogation of Article 370”, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the revocation of Article 370 is a befitting though belated vindication of the movement launched by late Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee with the assistance of young colleagues led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The decision, he said, has rattled many of such activists and so – called Kashmir protagonists who believed Article 370 abrogation as something undo-able or impossible but it has been made possible under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
Accusing the Kashmir-centric parties of misusing the name of Vajpayee and misquoting him, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the National Conference will do well to remind itself that it was Atal Bihari Vajyapee as Prime Minister who had consigned to the dustbin the Autonomy resolution passed by the J&K State Assembly with Farooq Abdullah as Chief Minister.
To the political parties like PDP and National Conference which often keep referring to Vajpayee’s emphasis on “Jamhooriyat, Kashmiriyat and Insaniyat”, Dr Jitendra Singh retorted that these parties have made a mockery of Jamhooriyat by being beneficiaries of 8 to 10 percent vote turn-out which enabled them to become Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly members and thus perpetuate their dynastic rule for three generations. Similarly, as for “Insaniyat”, these parties murdered Insaniyat by sympathising with the separatists who pushed the poor man’s children to become stone – pelters and get killed while their own children were lodged in safe havens in India and abroad. As far “Kashmiriyat”, he said, the first violation of Kashmiriyat and its composite culture happened when these political parties maintained silence of connivance when the entire Kashmiri Pandit community was being hounded of its home and hearth.
Reiterating that Article 370 is being rejoiced and welcomed by the common man in all the three regions of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the end of Article 370 is bothering only a handful of those politicians who anticipate an end to their political inning.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
