Chennai: Coming down heavily on the dramatic manner in which the BJP-led Central government abolished Article 370 that conferred special status to Jammu and Kashmir by a Presidential order on Monday, the DMK president M K Stalin demanded that the executive order be “put on hold” until a popular government elected by the people took office in J and K.
Expressing deep anguish at the BJP-led government at the Centre for having scrapped Article 370 by using the very provisions of Article 370, he said this had been done without getting the 'consent' of the people of that state in the first place.
“This is a murder of democracy,” Stalin told reporters here at Anna Arivalayam. He also condemned the proposed reorganization of J and K as two union territories of Jammu and Kashmir on the one hand with a Legislature and Ladakh in an arbitrary manner.
Terming the entire exercise as unprecedented and undemocratic, Stalin said the AIADMK supporting the BJP's decisions to both scrap Article 370 and to bifurcate J & K “is even more condemnable.” Taking a dig at the AIADMK, he said it would be “more appropriate” if the AIADMK was renamed as 'All India Bharatiya Janata Party”.
The decision on J and K taken at a juncture when the State was under President's rule was equally condemnable and was an attempt to divert the people's attention from the real issues that needed to be addressed in J and K, Mr. Stalin said.
The DMK leader said the events preceding the declaration including Sunday night's house arrest of key political party leaders in J and K, snapping communication links and Internet and creating an 'Emergency-like situation' showed that the Centre's action was “motivated”.
The move to bifurcate J and K when it was to go for State elections and the Centre to “take control” of the situation there was deeply disturbing, Mr. Stalin said, adding, it was anti-federal in character and against the basic tenets of the Constitution. The Centre should restrain from acting with such great haste in matters that could have grave consequences, Mr. Stalin urged.
