POONCH, DECEMBER 1: Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday said that he does see the party getting 300 seats in 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Azad said this at a rally in Krishna Ghati area of Poonch district while justifying his silence on Article 370 in public. Pointing out that the one who can restore it is first the Supreme Court before whom the matter is pending and the second is the Central Government who has abrogated it, he said that as the government has abrogated it and now how it can restore it.
“And when we will have 300 MPs?’’ he asked, adding “I cannot promise to do it saying that we will have get 300 MPs in 2024’’. “May God get us 300, but at present, I do not see it. That is why I will not make any false promise and avoid talking about Article 370 at every place,’’ he added.
Azad who is, at present, on tour of border Poonch and Rajouri districts, had recently said in Kashmir that it is irrelevant to talk on Article 370, saying that his main demands were restoration of statehood and holding of early assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
His statement had drawn criticism from National Conference vice president and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who said that the senior Congress leader has accepted defeat even before the Supreme Court took up hearing in the matter.
Pointing out that from the very first day, he has been opposing the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir State into two Union Territories, he said that he alone had been speaking about is in parliament during the past three years. “When 370 was abrogated and the state bifurcated, I told the government in Parliament that it has a right to bring amendment in the Constitution, but it shall be done by the Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir and not the Parliament,’’ he added.
All the Constitutions world over have a provision of amendment written in them. The Indian Constitution has more than 700 amendments during the past seven decades, which there have been changes in the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir during the period of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad and G M Sadiq, he said, adding that those amendments were brought by the Legislative Assembly.
Pointing out that he does not talk about something which is not in his hands, or make false promises to please people, senior Congress leader said that even at the all party meeting of J&K leaders convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he had demanded restoration of statehood, followed by delimitation of assembly constituencies and then the holding of assembly elections, apart from safeguards to local people in respect of jobs and land, as also the steps to take home Kashmiri Pandits.
While the Government has accepted the demands for statehood, delimitation and assembly polls, he has asked it that when it brings the bill for statehood it shall include in it the safeguards for local people in respect to land and jobs so that their land and jobs do not go to outsiders till Supreme Court decides the matter regarding Article 370, he said, asking what is wrong in it.
He said that at the moment, his priority is not chief ministership, but the protection of J&K’s land and jobs. The government may do it under any name, he said, adding he has nothing to do with Article 35A.