Kharge 'inadvertently' exposed Modi-Shah game plan on Article 371: Cong

The Congress Saturday hit back at the BJP for its criticism over Mallikarjun Kharge ''mistakenly'' referring to Article 371 while talking about the abrogation of Article 370, claiming the AICC chief had ''inadvertently'' exposed the 'Modi-Shah' game plan of wanting to make changes in Article 371.

The BJP hit out at Congress president Kharge over his swipe at the ruling party over the issue of removal of Article 370 of the Constitution, with Home Minister Amit Shah saying the opposition party's ''Italian culture'' is to be blamed for not understanding the very idea of India.

Shah and other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including its president J P Nadda, shared a clip of Kharge's speech on X, in which he is heard targeting the ruling party for talking about the removal of Article 370 in Rajasthan.

The Congress chief also incorrectly referred to Article 371 instead of Article 370, which had granted special rights to Jammu and Kashmir and was annulled by the BJP-led Centre in August 2019.

Responding to the BJP's criticism, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, ''Today by a slip of the tongue in his speech in Jaipur, @INCIndia President Mallikarjun Kharge ji mistakenly said that Modi claims credit for abolishing Article 371. Kharge ji clearly meant Article 370.'' ''Amit Shah immediately pounced on the Congress President. But the truth is that Modi does indeed want to change Article 371-A relating to Nagaland, Article 371-B relating to Assam, Article 371-C relating to Manipur, Article 371-F relating to Sikkim, Article 371-G relating to Mizoram, and Article 371-H relating to Arunachal Pradesh,'' he claimed.

''Incidentally, Kharge ji was the man singularly responsible for Article 371-J relating to the erstwhile Hyderabad-Karnataka region - which he got accomplished only after Dr. Manmohan Singh became PM,'' Ramesh said.

Amit Shah got all excited and agitated because Congress president Kharge ''inadvertently'' exposed the Modi-Shah gameplan on Article 371; now that they have gotten Article 370 out of the way, the Congress general secretary said.

BJP chief Nadda had also seized on the issue to slam the Congress. In a post on X, he said, ''Another day, another gem from Congress! Kharge Ji displays the typical Congress mindset which wanted Jammu and Kashmir to remain disconnected from the rest of India. He doesn't even know that the Article in question is Article 370 and not 371.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)