New Delhi:
Foreign minister S Jaishankar termed the scrapping of Article 370 — which gave Jammu and Kashmir its special status — “one of the biggest achievements” of the BJP-led Central government. In a conversation with NDTV’s Editor-in-Chief Sanjay Pugalia that’s part of NDTV’s mega conclave “Decoding G-20”, Mr Jaishankar said, “About Kashmir, honestly, I was a member of the cabinet in 2019 and involved in the decisions taken. One part is still amazed at how we allowed this situation to fester for so long”.
The change on the ground, he said, has been hugely positive. I had gone there in 1979 when I joined the government. I went to the same place in 2019 where I went in 1979 and was amazed at how little had changed,” he said.
Mr Jaishankar’s comments come as a five-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court is hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the scrapping of the Article 370.
The hearing has been on for 12 days, during which the Centre has cited the changes in the erstwhile state, which was split into two Union territories in 2019 after is special status was scrapped.
