Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh was in the eye of the storm on Saturday over his comment to a Pakistani journalist that his party will relook into the scrapping of Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, if they come to power at the centre. Several BJP leaders have attacked Mr Singh on Twitter.
"It is precisely this mindset of the Congress party which has sown the seeds of separatism in Kashmir and facilitated Pak designs in the Valley (sic)," Union Minister Jitendra Singh wrote on Twitter and shared a clip of the chat posted by the BJP's social media chief Amit Malviya.
In the clip, the Congress leader is apparently referring to former prime minister and BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee's approach of "Insaaniyat (humanity), Kashmiriyat, jamhooriyat (democracy)" for Kashmir.
"Democracy was not there in Kashmir when they revoked article 370. Then "insaniyat" was not there because they had put everyone behind bars. And Kashmiriyat is something, which is basically the fundamental of secularism. Because in a Muslim majority state, there was a Hindu king, and both worked together. In fact, reservation in government services was given to Kashmiri Pandits."
"Losing the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir is extremely sad decision. And the Congress party would definitely like to have a re-look at the decision," he is heard saying.
Many BJP leaders slammed the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister as #Article370 trended on social media.
"Digvijay ji thanks that journalist for such a question. I request the Congress party to change its name and change INC to ANC (Anti National Club House). This is such a clubhouse in which all the people started hating India today while hating Modi ji," said Sambit Patra.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan sought a reply from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. "Kashmir is an integral part of India. It was the Congress that committed the sin of bringing Article 370. What does Congress want to reconsider? Do they want to bring back separatists?" he said.
Digviyaja Singh responded to all the criticism in a series of tweets. "Millions of Congress workers sympathisers and all those who are opposed to BJP Modi Shah regime would fight every inch to vote out this disastrous regime (sic)," he said in a post.
"Perhaps, illiterate people don't understand the difference between 'shall' and 'consider'," Mr Singh said in another tweet in Hindi.
Special status to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution was scrapped in 2019. Article 370 gave Jammu and Kashmir its own constitution and decision-making rights for all matters barring defence, communications and foreign affairs. Its removal ended special status for Kashmir, which was key to its accession to India in 1947.
Many including former chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti, Omar Abdullah and his father Farooq Abdullah were detained for several months soon after the centre's move.
The Congress had opposed the move at the time and a resolution was passed against it by its top decision making body - the CWC. The party had insisted that all stakeholders should have been consulted before taking the decision.
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