Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said, here on Sunday, if voted to power again at the Centre, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would scrap Article 370.
"If the BJP is voted to power in the Lok Sabha polls, it would remove Article 370 (giving special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir) from the Constitution," Thakur said.
He also slammed former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for claiming India would be destroyed if Article 370 was removed and said the country couldn't be ruined by anyone but the persons issuing such statements.
The Congress in its election manifesto had promised to continue with the present laws, while the BJP was in favour of removing it and it was now up to the people to decide the issue by casting their vote in the Lok Sabha polls, he said.
Calling stone-pelters in Kashmir nursery students of terrorism, the Himachal Chief Minister said some of these anti-social elements join terror groups and there should not be relaxation for anyone indulging in terror activities.
Raising the BJP's pet poll theme, he said the Congress-led UPA regime remained mute spectators to attacks by Pakistan-based terror groups. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India had become third country after the US and Israel to carry out action against terrorists behind enemy lines, he added.
--IANS
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