BJP demands removal of Article 370

Jammu, Oct 10: The BJP on Tuesday demanded scrapping of Article 370 that grants special status to Jammu & Kashmir, saying it had kept the state isolated from national mainstream and denied its people civil and political rights that other citizens enjoy under the Constitution.

Dismissing Peoples Democratic Party’s suggestion that restoring Article 370 in its original form would aid self-rule in Jammu & Kashmir, State BJP President Nirmal Singh said it has only strengthened the “valley-centric ruling elite”.

It has only empowered them to exercise absolute legislative and executive powers and harm general political and democratic rights of the people, he told reporters here.

The solution to the problems of people of Jammu and Ladakh and of religious and ethnic minorities such as displaced Kashmiri Hindus, lay in the abrogation of article 370 and applying the Union Constitution in full, he said.

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