New Delhi: Hours after multiple Congress leaders, including young turks Jyotiraditya Scindia, Deepender Hooda and Milind Deora, differed from their senior leaders’ view on the Union government’s decision to render Article 370 ineffective and turn Jammu and Kashmir into a union territory through a presidential order, the Congress Working Committee passed a resolution condemning the government’s act.
Earlier in the day, several leaders – some with riders and some without them – openly stated their support to the government’s move. While like a true former royal, Scindia said that he supported the “full integration” of J&K into the Union of India, maverick Deora called for all political parties to set aside their “ideological fixations” and stop turning the abrogation of Article 370 into a “liberal vs conservative debate”. Hooda, on the other hand, supported the government’s sudden action because he believed this may help consolidate India’s territorial integrity.
However, putting rest to subsequent confusions about whether generational differences are emerging in the party, the CWC met late on Tuesday evening to officially deplore the government’s action as “unilateral, brazen and totally undemocratic” – a dictatorial move to dismember Jammu and Kashmir “by misinterpreting the provisions of the Constitution”.
The resolution said:
“Article 370 was conceived and crafted by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhai Patel and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, assisted by N. Gopalaswamy Iyengar and V.P. Menon. Article 370 is the Constitutional recognition of the terms of the Instrument of Accession between the State of Jammu & Kashmir and India. It deserved to be honoured until it was amended, after consultation with all sections of the people, and strictly in accordance with the Constitution of India.”
The meeting, chaired by Rahul Gandhi, was attended mostly by leaders who have attacked the government on the Kashmir issue. Leaders like Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, A.K. Antony, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, P. Chidambaram and Priyanka Gandhi were among those who participated in the CWC meeting.
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“What the BJP government accomplished yesterday in the Rajya Sabha and today in the Lok Sabha has grave implications going well beyond J&K and calls into question the very idea of India being a Union of States. Jammu & Kashmir acceded to India as one State and no government has the power to change its status or divide it or reduce any part of it to a Union Territory,” the resolution reiterated what Congress leaders like Azad and Chidambaram have been arguing in the parliamentary debates.
“Every principle of Constitutional law, states’ rights, parliamentary procedure and democratic governance was violated,” the party said.
Resolution adopted by the Congress Working Committee on the undemocratic abrogation by the BJP Govt of Article 370 of the Constitution of India. pic.twitter.com/6yugfhL7Wk
— Congress (@INCIndia) August 6, 2019
The Congress parliamentary delegation voted against the J&K (Reorganisation) Bill in the parliament. However, having been defeated comprehensively, the CWC also felt the need to reaffirm its position on J&K – perhaps particularly after the confusion created by party lawmaker Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who disputed the Centre’s claim that Kashmir was an “internal matter”. The CWC said:
“The Indian National Congress feels that J&K, including the areas under the illegal occupation of Pakistan and the part ceded by it to China, are integral part of the Republic of India. The integration of J&K with India is final and irrevocable. CWC firmly asserted that all issues pertaining to J&K are internal matters of India and no outside interference will be tolerated.”
The CWC resolution, perhaps the strongest in terms of its wording in recent times, has come at a time when the party is on the brink of appointing a new president after Rahul Gandhi stepped down from the post. With the junior leaders choosing to assert their independence on a crucial matter like Kashmir, a division across generational lines within the Congress ranks appear to be surfacing.
In the confusion over whether the CWC’s resolute statement is truly its ideological belief or more a resistance mounted by the senior members against the younger lot, the party may get the optics of its oppositional role wrong.
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The way senior leaders of the party argued against the UAPA (Amendment) Bill – which gives the government the power to brand even an individual a terrorist and to override the state administration – but eventually voted in favour of it only deepens the doubts.
What it does in the next few months, however, to fulfil its “pledge” to support people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, and how it fights what it called BJP’s “divisive and diabolical agenda” to consolidate power may clear the air.
