Cong's Karan Singh differs from party

New Delhi: Taking a stand different from his party's, veteran Congress leader Karan Singh on Thursday said he does not agree with a blanket condemnation of the government's decision on Jammu and Kashmir and pointed out what he called were its several positives.

In a statement the "positive points" Singh counted included the Union Territory status for Ladakh, scrapping of Article 35 A, future delimitation of J&K as a result of the state's bifurcation into UTs of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

However, he did not comment directly on Article 370 and also called for releasing the leaders of legitimate political parties in Jammu and Kashmir and initiate a broad based political dialogue with them. His statement comes two days after the Congress Working Committee deplored the manner in which the government stripped J&K of its special status by scrapping provisions of Article 370, and bifurcated the state. See P5