‘Abrogation of Article 370 With Respect to J&K Need of Hour,’ Says Vice President Venkaiah Naidu

He said that Article 370 should not be treated as a political issue as we should think in terms of national interest.

Chennai: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu yesterday spoke at length on the ongoing Kashmir issue and on the need to scrap the provisions of Article 370 to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

Naidu said that abrogation of Article 370 with respect to J&K was the need of the hour.

“It’s a good thing…We must always remember the history, analyse what happened, what not happened and then move forward. Abrogation of Article 370 is in the interest of the nation, its future, security, safety,” said Naidu.

He said that Article 370 should not be treated as a political issue as we should think in terms of national interest.

“I can say as the Vice President that we should all think in terms of national interest rather than the party’s interest. Article 370 should not be treated as a political issue, it should be treated as a national issue,” he added.

Naidu was speaking at the launch of the book ‘Listening, Learning and Leading’ based on his two years in office.

“Kashmir is an integral part of India. Whatever problems are there we should all stand by the people of Kashmir and see to it that steps are taken to restore normalcy and implementing developmental and welfare agenda at the earliest,” said Naidu.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah and superstar Rajnikanth were also present the event of the book launch.

While Rajnikanth likened the duo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah to ‘Krishna and Arjuna’, Shah said that there was no confusion in his mind about the consequences of removing the provisions of Article 370, that revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

As a legislator, I firmly believe Art 370 should’ve been removed long ago. As a Home Minister, there was no confusion in my mind about the consequences of removing Art 370,” said Shah.