Union minister and NC leader Farooq Abdullah on Saturday lashed out at the BJP, saying the party wanted to bury Article 370 of the Constitution that grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir and didn’t love Kashmiris. “The BJP wants to bury Article 370. The party wanted to bury it in the past and wants to do so today also,” Farooq said while addressing workers of the ruling party here.
He said when the state legislature passed an Assembly resolution in 2000, he, as the Chief Minister, had sent five copies of the autonomy resolution to then Home Minister L K Advani. “The resolution was, however, rejected by the NDA-led Central government.”
Farooq said that on the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Day in 2000, he had met Vajpayee in New Delhi and asked him whether he had read the resolution. “He said ‘no’, which clearly justifies that the BJP wanted to bury Article 370.”
Asserting that his party would continue to uphold Article 370 and fight for the restoration of autonomy in the state, he said: “Till the NC is there, the BJP won’t be able to bury Article 370. Till I am alive, I won’t let anybody bury Article 370. Even in my grave I will continue to challenge them and demand our rights back.”