Debate on Article 370: Modi ensured nation has ‘one flag, one Constitution’, says Amit Shah

Asserting that ‘one flag, one PM and one Constitution’ for the entire country was the correct position, Shah wondered how there could be two PMs in one country. “Whoever did it was wrong. Narendra Modi corrected it. Your approval or disapproval does not matter. The entire country wanted it. It isn’t a political slogan. We were saying since 1950 that there has to be one flag, one Constitution and one PM in one country and we have done it.”

Union Minister Piyush Goyal said while Roy recalled Syama Prasad Mookerjee, he did not recall his sacrifice. Mookerjee had died under arrest in J&K after he had entered the state by road without a permit. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said while stones were hurled at the security forces earlier in Kashmir, the same was not happening now.

Congress leader Manish Tiwari claimed that while the Constitution under Article 3 permits the reorganisation of a state or entering its boundaries and name, it did not permit Parliament to convert a state into a Union Territory. He added that Parliament had to consult the state legislatures even while altering the boundaries of a state, but there was no legislature in place in J&K at that time.

Tiwari said when the proclamation imposing President’s Rule in J&K in 2018 was issued, it revoked the proviso 1 and 2 to Article 3 that permits Parliament to alter the boundaries of a state. Tiwari was suggesting that this was done so that the state may be turned into a UT without consulting the state legislature.

At this, Shah said all proclamations for President’s Rule issued by Congress governments had revoked these provisons to Article 3, because without doing so the state’s Budget cannot be passed. Tiwari said provisos 1 and 2 of Article 3 had nothing to do with the Budget but were only about how states could be reorganised.