Chennai: Flaying DMK and its alliance partners in Tamil Nadu for their opposition to abrogation of Article 370, BJP on Saturday demanded an answer for their protest in New Delhi over it.
BJP National General Secretary Muralidhar Rao claimed that Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Jammu and Kashmir were deprived of reservations for the last 70 years, which their counteparts in Tamil Nadu enjoyed. DMK chief M K Stalin should explain why there should be such ‘discrimination’, he said.
“What is DMK’s explanation? In the last 70 years, Scheduled Caste people in Jammu and Kashmir were deprived of reservations. It is not their right to have reservations which Scheduled Caste people in Tamil Nadu are enjoying?” he asked.
Rao sought to know why the DMK, which always spoke of the rights of Dalits at every forum, was opposed to SCs and STs in Jammu and Kashmir getting their due.
“What is Mr Stalin’s explanation? The BJP leadership is ready for a debate on television channels or anywhere else on the issue,” he said.
Rao recalled that Manmohan Singh settled in New Delhi after partition and later went to become Prime Minister, something which would not have been possible had he been a resident of Jammu and Kashmir. People settled in other states enjoyed different rights, but not those in Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
Rao claimed that a majority of people in Jammu and Kashmir want development, reservations, good governance and democracy. Rao and senior party leaders, including BJP Tamil Nadu president Tamilisai Soundararajan were here to announce the month long nationwide month long campaign planned to be held from September 1 to explain the party’s stand on Abrogation of Article 370.
“BJP President (and Union Home Minister) Amit Shah, party working President Jagat Prakash Nadda and Union Council of Ministers and Chief Ministers belonging to BJP would undertake the campaign”, he said.
Referring to the campaign, he said the ‘One Nation, One Constitution’ campaign from September 1 to 30 would explain the union government’s stand on Abrogation of Article 370. During the campaign, 400 programmes would be conducted at 400 places and the party would meet ‘intellectuals’ and prominent leaders to explain the party’s stand on Article 370, he said.
Opposition parties, including Congress, Trinamool Congress and DMK had staged a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on August 22, demanding release of political leaders under detention in Jammu and Kashmir and restoration of normalcy there.
A resolution passed during the protest said that as a consequence of abrogation of the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution without holding consultations with the people of Jammu and Kashmir or their representatives, “an undeclared state of Emergency had come to force in the Valley.