BJP on Thursday rubbished as “farce” the report of a Prime Minister’s Working Group which has recommended autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir, contending that the document had been prepared without consulting the members.
Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who was a member of this Working Group on Centre-State relations headed by Justice (retired) Saghir Ahmed, said he will write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressing his reservations over the report.
“It is a farce. It is not a report of the Working Group because I am a member of the Working Group and the Group was never consulted on this report,” Mr. Jaitley told PTI.
“It is a fraud on the people of Jammu and Kashmir. A fraud on the people of the country,” he added.
The last meeting of this Group was held in September 2007. No meeting has been held since, Mr. Jaitley insisted.
He alleged that Justice Ahmed had not done anything in the last 28 months and has now lent his signature to a report on Centre-State relations, which speaks in terms of what should be done in terms on autonomy and on “pre-1953 issues“.
The idea of autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir goes against BJP’s position on the State as it has been demanding abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which bestows special status to the border State.
Earlier in the day, BJP President Nitin Gadkari questioned the intentions of Justice Ahmed as he had not convened a meeting of the Working Group for a long time.
