Mayawati hails revocation of special status to Jammu and Kashmir

Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) President Mayawati on Tuesday hailed the Centre's move of withdrawing the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories by taking the decision to scrap Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

Taking to Twitter, she said, "The demand for the removal of Section 370 and Article 35 A related to special status to Jammu and Kashmir was pending for a very long time. The BSP now expects that the people residing in there will be benefited from the Central Government's decision in this regard."

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also claimed that the Buddhist community residing in Jammu and Kashmir are also happy with Centre's decision of making Ladakh a separate Union Territory.

"Similarly, with Leh-Ladakh being declared as a separate Union Territory, the long pending demand of the Buddhist community in Jammu and Kashmir has been fulfilled. BSP welcomes this decision. From this decision, the whole country especially the followers of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar who are Buddhist are very happy," she said in another tweet.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also hailed the Central Government's decision on Jammu and Kashmir and hope that this move will bring "peace and development in the state."

A resolution removing the special status of the state under Article 370 was approved by the Rajya Sabha on Monday with Home Minister Amit Shah saying the constitutional provision was the "root cause of terrorism" in the state, and the Modi government was committed to making the state the most progressive in the country.

The Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Bill, 2019, which strips Jammu and Kashmir's status of a state and converts it into a Union Territory with legislature and carving out Ladakh region as a UT without legislature, was passed in a division pressed by the opposition with 125 votes in favour and 61 against, and an NCP member abstained.

The revocation of special status to Jammu and Kashmir has been long on the agenda of the BJP and its predecessor Jana Sangh, but the earlier BJP-led governments in 1998 and 1999 had kept the issue along with other pet issues like Ram temple and uniform civil code on the backburner citing lack of a majority. Even the Modi 1.0 government did not resort to tinkering with the status of Jammu and Kashmir.