New Delhi:
Senior BJP leader LK Advani has hit out at Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, advising him against using offensive language. Mr Abdullah had, on Wednesday, slammed BJP leaders for demanding the abrogation of Article 370 in the Constitution that grants special state to his state.
"Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir state, has every right to disagree with the BJP on matters relating to J&K. But I would advise him never to use offensive language and words like 'cheating' and 'deceiving' in that context," Mr Advani said in his latest blog post.
(Read blog)The BJP veteran was referring to the Chief Minister's recent speech where he, without naming anyone, had said that "there are some opportunistic leaders who are parroting 370 as they feel elections are near and want to befool the people." BJP has been pressing for the abolition of Article 370 and Mr Advani had, on Sunday last, made a renewed pitch for scrapping it. Mr Abdullah, without naming Mr Advani, had slammed him for raising the "false boggy of revocation" of the provision.
Reacting to Mr Advani's advice, Omar Abdullah tweeted: "Instead of advising me to show restraint Advani Ji should devote some blog space to explain his silence over Art 370 between 1998-2004. Perhaps he can also blog about what constitutional mechanism he plans to follow to repeal Art 370. I might learn something from his wisdom."
Mr Advani, in his blog, today said that even the Congress party - other than former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and a few other leaders - was strongly opposed to according a special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Mr Advani quotes from a biography of Sardar Patel to argue that even the latter was against Article 370 but did not push for it due to his regard for Pandit Nehru.
The senior leader also said his party has "not only been unequivocal, forthright and consistent from the time Jana Sangh (BJP's predecessor) was born in 1951 till today, but it is an issue for which the party's Founder-President laid down his own life".
Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, who founded the Jana Sangh, was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir in 1952 when he tried to enter the state without a permit which was required then to go to there. He died allegedly under mysterious circumstances-during his incarceration.