BJP state spokesperson, Prof Virender Gupta expressed his great shock and surprise on the statement of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti that by challenging the Article 35A the nationalist forces in the valley gets weakened and that if there is any alteration in the special status of the State there could be a revolt and India will not get a shoulder to carry its national flag in the State. The spokesperson while questioning the statement of the Chief Minister said that few thousands of terrorists and separatists who are raising a revolt against the country and causing disturbances in the Valley, at the behest of Pakistan, ISI and ISIS does constitute the Kashmir Valley and Jammu and Kashmir State is not Kashmir Valley alone; the state constitutes Jammu and Ladakh also and Kashmir merely constitutes its 16% area. The majority of the population in Jammu and Kashmir is nationalist and committed to uphold the integrity of the country and believe that their interests and aspirations are safe as being Indians.
He said that Kashmir is facing a serious danger from the spread of Wahabism and Salafism those are the extreme form of Islamic fundamentalism, have great potential of creating a divide among Kashmiri Muslims and the situation that caused an unimaginable disaster in Syria, Iraq and some of the other Gulf Countries. Had there been no intervention of Indian forces the Valley would have become the victim of this catastrophe, the spokesperson added.
Prof. Virender further added that the spread of separatism and fundamentalism in the valley has already destroyed its culture and Sufi ethos for which the Kashmir and its people were known. There is a challenge to this very cultural and humanistic identity of the Valley. He pointed that all efforts of the Government and the Kashmiri people should be towards the protection of this identity. These challenges are extremely great than what the Kashmir leaders, in particular the separatists perceive, i.e. the removal of Article 35 or Article 370.
Article 370 was incorporated in Indian Constitution as a temporary provision. It is not a sacred cow that cannot be touched. On number of occasions the provisions of Indian Constitution were introduced in the State for the benefit of its people. If its removal is for the interests of Indian nation and beneficial to the people of the State, then its abrogation should be done, of course with the consent of the State as well of the people of India. Prof. Virender added that if the great wall between the West German and East German can be broken and all the Germens enjoy the equal benefits of democracy, development and prosperity, why should the people of Jammu and Kashmir should not become the complete part of whole Indian Nation and get benefitted by the privileges, those the other country men are enjoying.
