Biju Janata Dal is a friend BJP can rely on

Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) support on Monday to the NDA’s resolution on scrapping of the Article 370 of the Constitution has once again proved that the regional party is no longer an adversary of the BJP, but a strategic partner.

“I support this resolution. My party BJD supports this resolution. Even though we are a regional party, the nation is first for us,” said BJD MP Prasanna Acharya during the debate on the resolution in the Rajya Sabha.

“We have our regional aspiration. But for us, our motherland comes ahead of everything,” the Parliamentarian said.

He lauded home minister Amit Shah for tabling the resolution after 70 years of ongoing crisis in Kashmir valley, saying the J&K now seems to be integral part of India.

“We have been saying that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral of India. Is it really integral part where the Constitution of India could not be implemented? An Indian citizen is not allowed to buy property there that we claim as part of the country. I would like to thank Amit Shah that Jammu & Kashmir is now integral part of India in the true sense,” Acharya said in his speech.

“We are very concerned about the freedom of people in Kashmir. We want to redeem people of Kashmir from torture. We want to take people of Kashmir at par the rest of India. But, at the same time, we are forgetting what happened to the Kashmiri pundits in the past 70 years,” Acharya observed.

Two other Rajya Sabha members – Dr Sasmit Patra and Prashant Nanda also – lauded the efforts of the NDA government in tabling the resolution.

Monday’s BJD support to the NDA legislative activity in the Parliament is the third such gesture in just the past two weeks.

On July 23, the BJD extended crucial support to the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2019. On July 31, it extended support in the Rajya Sabha to pass the Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2019. What is quite important is that the BJD also whole-heartedly supported the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019 which is famously known as Triple Talaq Bill.

The legislative supports were preceded by the BJD on July 8 surrendering its Rajya Sabha nominee Ashwini Vaishnab to the BJP, prompting political analysts to say that the regional party had now become an NDA-plus constituent.

During the campaigning for 2019 polls, both BJD and BJP had traded acrimonious charges against each other.