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Journalism of Courage
CHENNAI, JULY 14: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not given up its demand for abrogation of Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, but was not pursuing it now as it was heading a coalition ministry at the Centre, its general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu said here on Friday.
He told a press conference that the abrogation of Article 370 was very much on the BJP’s agenda, but the issue had been put in backburner as and its coalition partners had not accepted the demand. "Our agenda is the NDA’s agenda, which gave protected the special status to Jammu and Kashmir," he said.
He said his party would never agree to restore the pre-1953 position to Jammu and Kashmir. But the NDA Government was willing to consider devolution of powers to all states, not only to Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
He welcomed the National Conference leader and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah’s announcement that he would be deputing his party leaders to various states to remove any "misgivings" on the resolution passed by the State assembly. "I am glad that he had accepted that there are some misgivings on the issue," he said.
On AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha’s demand for the resignation of the Union Home Minister L K Advani for his participation in MDMK conference at Erode, he said it was not necessary. "She (Jayalalitha) is desperate and is making all sorts of demands," he said.
Commenting on anti-terrorism law, Naidu said the NDA Government must also evolve a consensus to bring forth the law to put down with a firm hand, the activities of terrorist organisations which had established bases across the borders with a view to destablise the country.
He said the party was of the view that the cross-border terrorism could not not be contained under the purview of the present laws. He said following a directive from the Union Home Ministry, the law commission had, after much study, come out with a draft bill which was currently being studied by various states.
The BJP hopes that the bill would be discussed at the forthcoming chief ministers conference in New Delhi and it would be placed before Parliament soon, he said.
The BJP cannot accept the view expressed by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that a prevention of terrorism act was not necessary and that the lapsed legislation TADA was in the past misused resulting in human rights violations, he averred.
Naidu claimed that the chairman of the Human Rights Commission Justice Verma had, in December last, said that laws were necessary to curb terrorism with preventive provisions to check its misuse.
He said the BJP was of the view that the country’s social interest and unity were paramount and had a priority over "the interest of individuals".
