Revoking Article 370 in J&K to have adverse effect, says Congress  

A month after the BJP-led NDA government abrogated Article 370 related to Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress on Wednesday slammed the saffron party over the clampdown in the Valley and arrest of various leaders, saying the government's step will have an "adverse" effect in the Valley.

"If the government has so much confidence in its policies, then why did it detain opposition leaders at Srinagar airport? The people and parties who held the Indian flag in Kashmir for last 70 years, why were they put under house arrest?" Congress MP and spokesperson Manish Tewari said at a press conference.

Tewari was responding to a question over the issue of Kashmir being internationalised and the government accusing the Congress of speaking the language of Pakistan.

The Congress leader said if the BJP government has so much confidence in its "policies" and when it thinks that the decision has been taken in the "country's interest" then what is the need to arrest a number of leaders, shutting down schools, colleges, universities, internet, telephone and mobile connections?

"The reality is that this (abrogation of Article 370) was a very wrong step which will have very adverse effect in the future," Tewari said.

Slamming the government for describing the opposition as anti-nationals for questioning its policies, he said, "A very different kind of discussion is going in the country since last five years that is if you raise questions against government policies then you are anti-national."

Tewari asserted that Congress does not need a certificate on nationalism from the BJP.

"Calling a wrong policy wrong is the right of the people. In a democracy it is the right of every citizen and a political party to question," he said.

"And when you raise questions, and being labelled as anti-national, such thinking and ideology weakens the country and is not in the interest of the nation," Tewari said.