J&K people must be taken in confidence on Art 370: Anwar

Senior NCP leader Tariq Anwar today cautioned against acting in haste over review of special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir for decades and said that the people there must be taken into confidence before tinkering with the provision.
"We cannot achieve desired result by tinkering with the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution in a unilateral manner as it will hurt the sentiments of the local people," Anwar, NCP general secretary and a Member of Parliament (MP) from Katihar, said.
The country's unity and integrity will be put to peril if the Article 370 were to be scrapped unilaterally, he said and observed that the people of Jammu and Kashmir must be taken into confidence by thoroughly debating the pros and cons of the provision before making a move in direction of doing away with special status to the border state.

Anwar, who was felicitated by the NCP workers on winning Lok Sabha election from Katihar, disagreed in principle with those making demand for doing away with Article 370 and said that the founding fathers of the Constitution must have taken a long-term view to protect the interests of the state and its people by granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
"The founders of our Constitution must have envisioned that Jammu and Kashmir must be given special status to integrate the state with the Union of India at the time of merger in 1947," the NCP leader said.
Anwar, who withstood the pro-Modi wave in the general elections to make it to the lower house of Parliament from Katihar, made light of the BJP sweep in the polls and said that such landslide results have been seen in the past too in 1967, 1977, 1984 and 1989.

"Let us not get depressed with the results against the UPA and work hard to find our moorings in future," he said.