New Delhi: The Congress has lost the moral right to remain a political party after its president Mallikarjun Kharge’s remarks on the scrapping of Article 370, the BJP said on Sunday.
The BJP intensified its attack on the Congress a day after Kharge took a swipe at it over the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution, which accorded special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in Rajasthan as to what difference does it make here with the removal of Article 370. If a party says what difference does it make in other states with the integration of Kashmir, it’s clear that you (Congress) have no respect for the oath taken by every one for the unity and integrity of the country,” BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi charged.
After Kharge’s remarks on Article 370, the Congress, “which has almost lost the status or the right to be a national party, has now also lost the right to be even a political party from a moral point of view,” the BJP leader alleged.
The Congress can now call itself a “conglomeration of regional forces”, he added.
With the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, Trivedi said, the Narendra Modi government fulfilled the BJP’s resolve of “national integration” which had been taken up under the leadership of Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, the party’s founding member “who sacrificed his life for it”.
“This is the difference between our thinking and their (Congress’) thinking,” the BJP leader said.
Home Minister Amit Shah had on Saturday hit out at the Congress dubbing Kharge’s remarks as “shameful”. He also reminded the Congress that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and that every state and citizen has a right over it just as the people of Jammu and Kashmir have a right over the rest of the country.
Shah and other BJP leaders, including its president J P Nadda, had shared the short clip of Kharge’s speech on X, in which he is heard targeting the ruling party for talking about the abrogation of Article 370.
“Are bhai, yahan ke logon se kya wasta hai (what has it got to do with the people here)?” Kharge is heard asking in the clip. The Congress chief also incorrectly referred to Article 371 instead of Article 370.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, Trivedi took potshots at the opposition party over Kharge’s reference to Article 371 of the Constitution, saying, “The Congress is perhaps scared of 370 now and perhaps out of frustration, he referred to it as 371”.
The BJP leader also launched a fresh salvo at the Congress over its alliance with the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and said Prime Minister Modi’s charge that the Congress’ Lok Sabha poll manifesto bears Muslim League’s imprint was “absolutely correct”.
“This (IUML) is the same Muslim League which was led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah before independence. After independence, only its name changed, not its work,” he said, adding “Our Prime Minister is absolutely correct. The Congress has the same feeling that the Muslim League had”.
Trivedi alleged that the Congress has a “clear strategy” of creating divisions in the country on the lines of “region, caste and language” to gain power.
He said the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi wants to bring all sections of the society into the “mainstream” of the country. “They (Congress) want to keep them away from the mainstream”, the BJP leader alleged.
