A day after opposing the Bill and walking out of Parliament, Bihar’s ruling party, the Janata Dal (United), on Wednesday made a U-turn on the issue of Article 370 and supported the Centre’s move. Earlier, the party MPs had walked out of the Rajya Sabha to opposing the Centre’s move.
“We were opposing it, but now it has become law and implemented in the country. So we all should accept it…we all should be with the Central government now on this issue”, said senior JD(U) leader and party Rajya Sabha member R.C.P. Singh in Patna.
Mr. Singh, who is considered close to Chief Minister and party president Nitish Kumar, explained why the party had been opposing the Centre’s move. “Our late leader George Fernandes, who was the convener of the NDA, had decided not to support controversial issues like triple talaq, abrogation of Article 370 and Ram Mandir…so we’re opposing government’s move on these issue but once it has become a law, there is no point opposing it”, he said.
Earlier on Monday, senior JD(U) leader and party’s chief spokesperson K.C. Tyagi, though, had justified party MPs staging a walkout in Rajya Sabha over the issue, saying, “it was in line with the ideologies of veteran socialist leaders like Loknayak Jayprakash Narain, Ram Manohar Lohia and George Fernandes”.
However, JD(U) leader Ajay Alok had earlier urged party chief Nitish Kumar to review the stand taken against the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill.
‘Sentiments of people’
“With the country’s interests in mind, I would appeal our national president @NitishKumar that a rethink be done on party’s stand on the Bill that has been brought with regard to Article 370. The sentiments of the people of the entire country, including Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir, are supreme and a decision must be taken keeping the same in mind”, Mr. Alok had tweeted.
