Scrapping Article 370 in India's interest: Scindia

Scrapping Article 370 in India's interest: Scindia

Jyotiraditya Scindia. (Photo: IANS)

New Delhi, Aug 6 (IANS) Congress leader and former MP Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday joined a number of other party leaders in backing the Centre's move to abrogate Article 370 even as Rahul Gandhi and the party opposed the government's Mission Kashmir.

"I support the move on #JammuAndKashmir & #Ladakh and its full integration into union of India. Would have been better if constitutional process had been followed. No questions could have been raised then. Nevertheless, this is in our country's interest and I support this," Jyotiraditya Scindia tweeted on Tuesday.

In a big triumph for the government, both the Houses of the Parliament have passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill 2019 and adopted the resolution to scrap Article 370 of the Constitution which granted special status to J&K, paving way for bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories (UTs) -- Jammu and Kashmir with an Assembly and Ladakh sans one.

Before Scindia, other young faces in the Congress such as Deepender Hooda, Jaiveer Shergill and Rae Bareli MLA Aditi Singh had come out in support of revoking Article 370.

Rahul Gandhi, meanwhile, has slammed the move, saying that abuse of executive power has grave implications for national security. He also termed the arrest of Kashmiri leaders as unconstitutional and undemocratic.

Senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, P. Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal too had opposed the move in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Azad also criticised the party leaders, saying that those who did not know the history of Jammu and Kashmir and the Congress should not remain in the party.

--IANS

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