CHENNAI/AHMEDABAD, JUNE 29: The BJP has hardened its stance on autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir and made it clear that it would oppose the Autonomy Bill passed by the state Assembly come what may.Party president Kushabhau Thakre said in Ahmedabad that the autonomy demanded by the state would disintegrate the country as Punjab and the north-eastern states would make similar demands. In Chennai, party national general secretary M. Venkaiah Naidu said the Parliament would reject the J-K Assembly resolution.The Gujarat BJP executive also adopted a resolution today condemning the move. The resolution stated that the people of Gujarat and the country considered the autonomy step ``shocking'' and were apprehensive about it.``The BJP fails to understand what this autonomy is all about. Does it mean devolution of powers or is it a demand for the pre-1953 status,'' Naidu asked. He said the Centre had been working for greater devolution of powers to the states and local bodies.Naidu said that returning to the pre-1953 status would mean J&K being out of the jurisdiction of labour laws and departments of Customs & Excise and Posts & Telegraph. Articles 356, 357, 249 and 256 enacted after 1953 would cease to be applicable to the State.``Will autonomy mean that the laws that have been extended to J&K after 1953 will not be applicable but that the state will continue to get the extraordinary allocations it has been getting all these years,'' Naidu asked, pointing out that the Central allocation to the state was 14 times more than that of Bihar and 11 times that to Tamil Nadu.Having no recourse to the Supreme Court and being outside the purview of the Election Commission and the Comptroller and Auditor General would also not be in the interests of the people of Kashmir, he said.Asked why Farooq had suddenly raised the autonomy plank, Naidu said: ``He should explain it. What we need is greater harmony between a strong Centre and strong states. We are for cooperative federalism and not for alienating the people of Kashmir."Thakre said the Autonomy Bill had started a chain reaction as SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra had demanded a similar status for Punjab. But he ruled out dismissal of the National Conference government or removal of the party from the NDA.He said he was hopeful that the Centre would sort out the problem through dialogue. Thakre said: ``We will convince Abdullah that with this Bill the basic thought of remaining in India will be disturbed and he will understand it.'' He said there were attempts to preempt Abdullah from moving this autonomy resolution in the state Assembly but it did not materialise. There was unrest in Jammu and Kashmir against Abdullah since he neglected development and in order to take away the people's mind from the issue, he has introduced the Bill of autonomy.Thakre ruled out the division of Jammu and Kashmir even though the state government was ``neglecting'' the Jammu and Laddakh regions. But he defended attempts for talks with the Hurriyat, saying that in democracy dialogue should continue.
