‘Cong lost moral right to remain pol party after Kharge’s Art 370 remarks’

New Delhi: The Congress has lost the moral right to remain a political party after its president Mallikarjun Kharge’s remarks on the scrapping of Article 370, the BJP said on Sunday.

The BJP intensified its attack on the Congress a day after Kharge took a swipe at it over the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution, which accorded special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

“Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in Rajasthan as to what difference does it make here with the removal of Article 370. If a party says what difference does it make in other states with the integration of Kashmir, it’s clear that you (Congress) have no respect for the oath taken by every one for the unity and integrity of the country,” BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi charged.

After Kharge’s remarks on Article 370, the Congress, “Which has almost lost the status or the right to be a national party, has now also lost the right to be even a political party from a moral point of view,” the BJP leader alleged.

The Congress can now call itself a “conglomeration of regional forces”, he added.

With the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, Trivedi said, the Narendra Modi government fulfilled the BJP’s resolve of “national integration” which had been taken up under the leadership of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the party’s founding member who “sacrificed” his life for it.

“This is the difference between our thinking and their (Congress’) thinking,” the BJP leader said. Home Minister Amit Shah had on Saturday hit out at the Congress dubbing Kharge’s remarks as “shameful”.

He also reminded the Congress that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and that every state and citizen has a right over it just as the people of Jammu and Kashmir have a right over the rest of the country.