Votaries of Art 370 were its biggest abusers: Dr Jitendra

New Delhi, Oct 11: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh Wednesday alleged that the votaries of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir were its biggest abusers.

He was addressing the gathering after releasing the book “Jammu & Kashmir – a Wounded Paradise” by veteran journalist Padma Shri Jawaharlal Koul.

The Union Minister said, “By using the alibi of Article 370 and 35A, both Congress and National Conference had for decades together denied the common man the benefit of central laws like property rights for women, voting rights to refugees from Pakistan, the Dowry Prohibition Act 1961, Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 in order to appease certain sections of society for vote bank.”

“The same votaries, however, never felt shy of extending the term of State Assembly to 6 years and refusing to revert even after the constitution amendment was brought in by the Morarji government, which they refused to extend to J&K, citing Art 370 because it ensured their continuance in power,” he said.

Dr Jitendra described the book as a non-political narrative putting the record straight for posterity so as to dissuade biased accounts about the recent history of J&K from creating confusion in the minds of the new generation.

“Jammu & Kashmir suffered a long nightmare of blunder, blackmail and deceit propagated by vested interests. They would hold the powers that be in Delhi to ransom, and the powers, at different times, were also ready to appease. And this appeasement went on and on till they arrived at a situation where you could not, (since) you were riding a tiger and you could not get off it,” he said.