Srinagar: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor Sunday said the way Article 370 of the constitution was done away with does not augur well for the future of the country.
In a wide ranging interview with PTI on his new book ‘The Battle of Belonging’, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram when asked about Congress leader P Chidambaram’s recent remarks calling for the restoration of Article 370 and its criticism by the BJP, said he has articulated his stand clearly within Parliament.
“It’s not just an issue of abrogating 370 — even (Jawaharlal) Nehru ji had said the provision was a temporary one. But the Constitution specifies how it is to be done,” he said.
“So though it shouldn’t matter what side of the debate on Article 370 you stand on — after all, differing voices are the lifeline of any democracy — the manner in which it was implemented, the way our own fellow citizens were overnight clamped down upon by their own government, consciously and willfully disregarding the democratically enshrined rights guaranteed to all Indians, does not bode well for the future of the country,” he said.
No political objective can justify the huge-scale abuse of the rights of Indian citizens in this manner, Tharoor said.
