Face of Nation : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation on Thursday at 8 pm during which he is expected to talk about government’s decisions on scrapping the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir by modifying Article 370 of the Constitution and splitting the state into two Union Territories — Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.On Wednesday, as the Union Cabinet proceeded to approve a proposal to honour BJP’s oldest ideological commitment of stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its special status, PM Modi advised his ministerial colleagues that there is no room for triumphalism and reminded them that it’s now that the heavy-lifting begins, sources told.
Before this message to Cabinet colleagues, Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had already done crucial spadework to get the proposal cleared by both Houses of Parliament.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah made the announcement Monday. While the Ladakh UT will be without a legislature, the UT of J&K will be with legislature. Shah read out the President’s Order in this regard. Apart from NDA allies, BJP’s rivals like BSP and AAP, and fence-sitters like Naveen Patnaik’s BJD, Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP and Bodoland People’s Front (BDF) supported the Bill. JD(U), Congress, TMC, DMK, PDP and Vaiko’s MDMK, meanwhile, vehemently opposed the move.
