Today, BJP has murdered the Constitution, democracy: Azad after Centre scraps Article 370

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government has murdered the Constitution of India and democracy by scrapping Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

"I strongly condemn the act of 2-3 MPs (PDP's Mir Fayaz and Nazir Ahmed Laway who attempted to tear constitution). We stand by the Constitution of India. Hum Hindustan ke samvidhaan ki raksha ke liye jaan ki baazi laga denge, but today BJP has murdered constitution, they have murdered the democracy," Azad said in Rajya Sabha.

The Centre on Monday scrapped Article 370 of the Constitution that gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir and converted the border state into a Union Territory with a legislature, implementing the long-held agenda of the party and its predecessor, Jan Sangh.

The state was also split by hiving off Ladakh region from the state and making it into a Union Territory without a legislature.

The series of decisions were tabled in Rajya Sabha amidst huge uproar from the opposition which stoutly resisted them. An angry PDP lawmaker Mir Mohammad Fayaztore a copy of the Constitution, inviting a warning from Chairman M. Venkaiah Naiduwho said he would be named.

Unfazed by the opposition, Home Minister Amit Shah tabled resolutions scrapping Article 370 under which the state had separate laws and provisions that barred people from rest of India from buying land and settling down in the state.

Moving the resolution, Shah said, "There should not be a delay of even a second to removing Article 370 from the Constitution.