Panun Kashmir backs Modi over debate on Article 370

JAMMU: Panun Kashmir, an organisation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, today supported the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's suggestion to hold debate on Article 370.

"Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of our organisation has welcomed the statement of Modi on debate over Article 370. We strongly bat for it",President Panun Kashmir Ashwani Chrungoo said here today.

Chrungoo said that it needs to be clarified that the Article 370 is a temporary provision in the Indian constitution which was never intended to be a permanent statute.

"In the debates leading up to the framing of the constitution, the worthy members of the constituent assembly never favoured it as a permanent feature.

"So much so that the then PM Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru while referring to the Article said that it will get eroded of its own over the period of time",he said.

The Article 370 has always nourished a feeling of exclusivism among a certain section of the populace giving rise to fissiparous tendencies. Moreover, it has provided a constitutional justification for nourishing separatism in the Jammu and Kashmir state, he claimed.

The so-called package for return for the displaced Pandits formulated by J-K government has not taken into account the ground realities existing in the state, Panun Kashmir Spokesman Virender Raina said.

"The package lacks in substance and is replete with infirmities. We have the fate of previous such packages in front of us and the current one announced by the government does not inspire any confidence in the displaced community",he added.

The issues of ethnic cleansing, genocide and mass exodus of the Pandit community cannot be put under the carpet by announcing these so-called packages,he alleged.