Jammu 8 May (KNS): Indians will always appreciate and welcome Pakistan's admission that Article 370/35A is an internal affair of India. This admission is a proof of the fact that the 2019 August developments have a global acceptance besides being it the sovereign right of the Parliament of India to choose its political options at its own timings", said Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo, senior BJP and KP leader, Incharge, Deptt of Political Affairs and Feedback, J&K-BJP.
As per the statement issued to Kashmir news service (KNS),he was reacting to the recent and fresh statement of Shah Mahmood Qurashi, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan. Amid reports of back-channel talks between New Delhi and Islamabad, Pakistan appears to be toning down its rhetoric on Kashmir.
In an interview with Pakistan’s SAMAA TV, the country’s Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, has said that "the dilution of Article 370 is India’s internal matter, adding that the move has been challenged in the Indian Supreme Court". “In my view, Article 370 is not important,” Qureshi said.
When asked what is important for Pakistan, he said Article 35A. Article 35A, incorporated into the Constitution in 1954 by an order of the President in 1954, allowed the Jammu and Kashmir legislature to define permanent residents of the state, their special rights and privileges.
Chrungoo made it clear a number of times previously also that It should not seem that Pakistan continues to live in its world of dreams about Jammu and Kashmir notwithstanding the fact that the decisions taken by the sovereign Parliament of India on 5-6 August 2019 relating to Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh were supported by the 3/4th majority of the representatives of Parliament of India.
These representatives included those belonging to the then Jammu & Kashmir state as well. In both the houses of the Parliament, mind it, all of them were directly and indirectly elected by the people of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
Having such a huge legislative support in both the houses of Parliament regarding the August 5-6, 2019 developments, It is but rubbish to think in terms of any kind of willingness on the part of the government of India revisiting the decisions taken in August 2019.
A number of elections to various democratic institutions were held in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, after the historic decisions, in which almost 60% people in the UT participated. The process of successful delimitation will also lead the UT to elect a new Legislative Assembly in the very near future.
Moreover, the people in the Union Territory are more interested in peace, progress, development and prosperity which Pakistan destroyed by its cross-border terrorism and cross-LoC firing over the last more than three decades, he further added.
It has been made clear to the rulers in Pakistan that India continues to have a big stake in those occupied parts of Jammu and Kashmir which are under the illegal control of Pakistan and we would want their liberation as soon as it is possible. But there can be no negotiations under the well established and recognized doctrine of India which clearly states that "terror and talks won't go together". There is always a big constituency available in India that goes by this doctrine that was invented during the last Congress regime and supported by the then opposition overwhelmingly.
The opposition of those years constitutes the government of the day and has a strong mandate of the people to pursue its election manifesto which includes this foreign affairs doctrine as an integral part, and Pakistan needs to make a permanent note of this reality on the ground, added the BJP leader.(KNS)