New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh’s recent remark on abrogation of Article 370 sparked a row on Saturday. BJP’s IT cell chif Amit Malviya tweeted a “leaked” chat of Digvijaya Singh with a Pakistan based journalist Shahjeb Jillani on the Clubhouse app in which the Congress leader was heard raising question on the decision of revoking Article 370. In the conversation, while responding to Jillani, Digvijaya said,”Democracy was not there in Kashmir when they revoked Article 370; ‘insaniyat’ was not there as they had put everyone behind bars. Meanwhile, ‘Kashmiriyat’ is something that is the fundamentals of secularism. Because in a Muslim-majority state, there was a Hindu king and both worked together. In fact, the reservation in Kashmir was given to Kashmiri pandits, therefore, the decision of revoking Article 370 and reducing the statehood of J&K, is a sad decision. And the Congress will certainly have to relook at this issue.”
While sharing this clip from the Clubhouse app on Twitter, Amit Malviya said: ‘”In a Club House chat, Rahul Gandhi’s top aide Digvijaya Singh tells a Pakistani journalist that if Congress comes to power, they will reconsider the decision of abrogating Article 370.” After Malviya’s tweet , BJP launched an all-out attack on Congress over the remarks of Digvijaya Singh. Addressing a press meet, BJP’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra said , “We have all seen how Digvijaya Singh is spitting venom on India and speaking in agreement with Pakistan. This is the same person who had dubbed the Pulwama attack as an accident and described the 26/11 Mumbai attack as an RSS conspiracy.” Citing old comments of Congress leaders, Patra alleged that the Congress leader’s recent comment is part of a larger pattern. “This is all part of the toolkit which the BJP had exposed,” Patra said in a reference to a controversial document rejected as fake by the Congress.
Digvijaya Singh distanced himself from the controversy and tweeted “uneducated people might have not understood the difference between “shall” and “consider”. However, Digvijaya Singh’s remark was welcomed by National Conference president and former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah who said, “I am very grateful to Digvijaya Singh. He has realised the sentiments of people as other parties who have also spoken about it. I welcome it heartily and hope the government will look into it again.”