‘Hopeful of 370 restoration with China’s support’
‘It was Modi who not only invited Xi but did jhoola sawari with him’
New Delhi: Holding government of India’s decision to abrogate the Article 370, responsible for the Chinese “aggression” at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah said that China “never accepted” the scrapping of special status and hoped that it will be “restored with their support”.
“Whatever they are doing at LAC in Ladakh, all because of the abrogation of Article 370, which they never accepted. I am hopeful that with their support, Article 370 will be restored in J&K,” Farooq Abdullah said in an interview with India Today.
“I never invited the Chinese President, it was [PM] Modi who not only invited him but did jhoola sawari with him. He [PM Modi] even took him to Chennai and had food with him,” Abdullah, who is also the president of National Conference, said.
He also said that “whatever government of India did on August 5 [in 2019] was unacceptable”.
Abdullah, who is also a Member of Parliament, said that he was not even allowed to speak on the problems of Jammu and Kashmir during the sessions in Parliament.
Article 370, combined with Article 35A, accorded Jammu and Kashmir special status under the Constitution of India, allowing it to have a separate constitution and a separate penal code among other legal distinctions.
On August 5, 2019, Parliament passed two resolutions. The first rendered Article 370 inoperative in Jammu and Kashmir by applying the power granted under the same Article of the Constitution. The second resolution was for bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
The special status of Jammu and Kashmir and its reorganisation came into effect on October 31, 2019.
After the abrogation, top Jammu and Kashmir political leaders including Farooq Abdullah, his son and former CM Omar Abdullah and PDP chief and former CM Mehbooba Mufti were put under house arrest. However, Abdullahs were released but Mehbooba Mufti still remains under house arrest.
Currently, India and China are locked in a tense border standoff in Ladakh. Both sides have held a series of high-level diplomatic and military talks to resolve the border row, however, the talks and meetings have yielded no results so far.
In June this year, 20 armed forces personnel were killed in a clash with Chinese army at Ladakh’s Galwan valley.
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