india

Updated: Oct 18, 2019 05:34 IST

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday that the Congress was not opposed to the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and had, in fact, voted in favour of the move in Parliament. “The Congress believes that Article 370 is temporary, but if a change has to be brought, it has to be brought with the good will of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. We are opposed to the way it was removed,’’ Singh said at a talk on the economy organised by the state Congress unit.

The Congress has been split over its stance on the move to divest J&K of its special status. The BJP has highlighted this as one of its achievements in the campaign for the October 21 assembly elections in two states.

When asked about Congress’s views on the BJP promising to recommend a Bharat Ratna for Hindu ideologue VD Savarkar, he said, “We are not against Savarkar but we are not in favour of Hindutva ideology he stood for. As far as the issue of Bharat Ratna goes as we are not in power, the issue will be settled by the government with the

committee (that screens

nominees).’