New Delhi: In an effort to stymie differences within the party over the abrogation of Article 370, the Congress has called a meeting of all its general secretaries, state in-charges, the chairpersons of AICC departments and MPs on Friday to explain the party’s stand on the issue and the subsequent Congress Working Committee resolution on it.
This decision follows acrimonious scenes at Tuesday’s CWC meeting where Congress president Rahul Gandhi asked Jyotiraditya Scindia to give an explanation for his tweet supporting the abrogation of Article 370. To this, Mr Scindia replied that there was no point in opposing every bill of the government and that the Congress must support Kashmir’s integration with India, sources told this newspaper.
“Though I am in a minority, I stand firmly by my tweet,” sources quoted Mr Scindia as saying.
On Tuesday, Mr Scindia had tweeted: “I support the move on #JammuAndKashmir & #Ladakh and its full integration into Union of India. Would have been better if constitutional process had been followed. No questions could have been raised then. Nevertheless, this is in our country’s interest and I support this.”
At the CWC meeting on Wednesday that lasted nearly four hours, Mr Scindia was backed by other leaders like R.P.N. Singh and Deepinder Hooda. At this Mr Gandhi is learnt to have asked the leaders that if the Congress supported the BJP on this bill, who would end up getting the Hindu votes?
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and senior leader from Jammu & Kashmir Ghulam Nabi Azad said it was an assurance by then PM Jawaharlal Nehru to stand with Kashmiris. “Now we cannot abandon them. Kashmiris were the ones who stood with India.” he is learnt to have said emotionally.
