BJP, RSS call second struggle to abolish Article 370

Madhopur (Punjab), March 20 : At a place where the Bharatiya Jana Sangh's founder Shyama Prasad Mookherjee broke the permit restriction to visit Jammu and Kashmir in 1953, leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) Saturday called for a "second struggle" for abolition of the Constitution's Article 370 and complete integration of the state with the rest of India.

Leaders from the BJP, including party president Nitin Gadkari, former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani and others, and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat addressed a public rally after unveiling a memorial at the Madhopur bridge near Pathankot town in north Punjab, 280 km from Chandigarh, to mark Mookherjee's sacrifice.

The memorial has been named "Ekta Sthal" (Unity monument) and has been set up near the bridge as a tribute to Mookherjee. It was from the Madhopur bridge that Mookherjee, who was a minister in the first government in independent India, had entered Jammu and Kashmir by defying the permit restriction on May 11, 1953.

During that time a permit was required to visit the state and Mookherjee launched a campaign seeking that every Indian could freely go to Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing the gathering, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat called for a "second struggle" to abolish Article 370, which provides special status and laws to Jammu and Kashmir.

Terming it as "the last remaining symbol of disintegration", Bhagwat demanded respectable rehabilitation of nearly 350,000 Kashmiri Hindu migrants back in the Kashmir Valley. Most of them had left the Valley after terrorism started in 1989.

Bhagwat criticised the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre for soft-pedaling on the issue of terror emanating from Pakistani territory.

Advani said the struggle that Mookherjee started in 1953 would be completed only if Article 370 was repealed.

"The demand for autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir or restoring the pre-1953 status would be suicidal for the integrity of the country," Advani told the gathering.

Gadkari rued the fact that India had failed to settle the Jammu and Kashmir issue even 62 years after independence.

"The appeasement policies of the UPA government are encouraging terrorism and Naxalism (Maoism) in the country," the BJP president said.

Flaying the UPA for starting talks with Pakistan under pressure of foreign countries, Gadkari said talks would be futile till Pakistan continued to foment terrorism from its soil.

Among those present at the rally were Punjab's ruling Akali Dal president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, BJP general secretary Jagat Prakash Nadda, Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu and others.