The abrogation of provisions of Article 370 was “wrong” and “unconstitutional” and people of Jammu and Kashmir have every right to raise their voices against it, senior Congress leader Saifuddin Soz said on Tuesday.
He was reacting to a statement made by Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu last week where he said that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and the country is capable of solving its own problems.
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On his first Jammu and Kashmir visit since the August 2019 abrogation of Article 370, Mr. Naidu had also asked other nations to “confine themselves to their domestic problems” rather than giving unsolicited advice to India.
“I think Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu will concede our right to say something on Kashmir. If that right is granted, then we would like to say that it was wrong on the part of the government of India to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution of India unilaterally. That action on the part of the government of India was unconstitutional,” Mr. Soz said in a statement.
The former Union Minister said Article 370 was incorporated in the Constitution of India, when a constitutional relationship was being worked out between the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union of India.
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“The simple fact is that the government of India had no right to abrogate Article 370 unilaterally,” he added. Mr. Soz said the people of the Jammu and Kashmir have every right to raise their voice against the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution of India. “We shall, therefore, continue to raise our voice! Meanwhile, Shri Venkaiah Naidu would weigh in his mind whether he was entitled to say that nobody has any right to say anything on Kashmir,” he added.
