This misadventure is going to have serious consequences: Dinesh Gundu Rao on Article 370

Hitting out at BJP-led government over abrogation of Article 370, Karnataka Congress Chief Dinesh Gundu Rao on Monday said that this "misadventure" is going to have serious consequences while adding that the move was taken to divert attention of the people from real issues.

"It is a move that is going to be very harmful to the future of the country and for the unity of this country. It is going to have a huge impact on the entire country, not only Jammu and Kashmir. The BJP Government is playing with fire," Rao told reporters here in a press conference.

"When you do something which is against the will of people, serious consequences will follow. This misadventure is going to have serious consequences. This move was to divert attention from real issues that the country is facing," he said.

The Congress leader said that the government's decision will lead to further erosion of our constitutional values and our rights under the constitution. "This naked display of state power and state machinery will have disastrous consequences for the country," he added.

The central government had revoked Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and proposed that the state be bifurcated into two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

The Jammu & Kashmir (Reorganisation) Bill, 2019, which strips Jammu and Kashmir's status of a state and converts it into a Union Territory with legislature and carving out Ladakh region as a UT without legislature, was passed in a division pressed by the opposition with 125 votes in favour and 61 against, and an NCP member abstained.