Senior BJP leader L K Advani raised the issue of abrogating Article 370 for the full integration of Jammu and Kashmir with India.
The BJP had been advocating the abrogation of the Article that gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, but put the issue on the back burner to win more allies.
“The country eagerly awaits the day when Article 370 would be repealed, and the two Vidhans (constitutions) also would become one,” Advani wrote in his blog, commemorating the death anniversary of Jana Sangh founder Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.
Advani said that Mukherjee’s death under mysterious circumstances triggered a series of events that promoted national integration and changed the administrative status of Jammu and Kashmir.
The intense public indignation aroused by the passing away of Dr Mukherjee in suspicious circumstances triggered off a series of developments in the next few months, which significantly promoted the process of national integration. First and foremost, the permit system was abolished, Advani wrote.
Before visiting Jammu and Kashmir, a permit had to be taken.
The Jana Sangha leader had protested against this and was arrested in 1953 when he entered there without a permit, while leading a protest. He later died in custody.
Until his death, neither the Supreme Court nor Election Commission, nor the Comptroller and Auditor General, had any jurisdiction over the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The authority of these three constitutional bodies was extended to the state.
Till then, the Chief Minister of the state was called the Prime Minister and the Head of State the Sadar-e-Riyasat.
In theory, neither the President nor the Prime Minister of the Union had authority over the state, he wrote.