Reject Article 370 as Kashmir's connect to India: Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Calling the issue of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir the biggest challenge before India, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said it cannot be solved until the "failed obsolete thought" of Article 370 as a "loose constitutional connect" between the state and the rest of the country is rejected. He said the challenge needs a fresh approach and only a strong government and a leader with clarity alone was capable of resolving the Kashmir issue. Referring to the past Congress governments, he said the challenge cannot be resolved by those who created the problem and who believe that a "loose constitutional connect" will lead to integration.

He added that it could only be done through a fresh approach "which is uncompromising on terror" and "committed to total integration" and through "reversal of the historical blunders". Targeting the Congress, Jaitley said it was identified with the creation of the problem itself by "wishing the issue away" when Pakistan did not reconcile to Kashmir being a part of India.

"Instead of working for total integration, the party wanted a loose and liberal constitutional connect between rest of the nation and the state under an erroneous impression that such an arrangement would further the cause of integration," he said in a Facebook post. "Article 370 was disastrously thought out as a constitutional connect between rest of the country and the state. Article 35A was surreptitiously introduced in 1954. It catered to a separatist psyche and legitimised discrimination," he added.

Jaitley said terror supported from across the border "can't be fought either with velvet gloves or a policy of appeasement". "This challenge can obviously be resolved with a fresh approach which is uncompromising on terror, uncompromising in its determination to enforce the rule of law and committed to total integration. A strong government and a leader with clarity alone is capable of resolving the Kashmir issue," he said.

Targeting National Conference (NC) and the People's Democratic Party (PDP), he said the two regional parties were, of late, more strident in advocating secession of the state if firm measures are taken. Development in the state has suffered due to terror and both democracy and secularism had been a casualty in the valley, he added. The BJP leader said the people of Jammu and Kashmir have to be at the centre point in India's strategy and they should get opportunities, peace and security of life, and freedom from terror. "A state free from terror itself will imply much lesser security presence." (IANS)

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