'Ultimate betrayal of nation': Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar attacks those who 'consider Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir permanent'

NEW DELHI: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday cautioned citizens against compromising on nationalism, terming it "the ultimate betrayal to the nation".

"Wherever anyone threatens the integrity of the nation, we must not tolerate it ... Today there is a need for ideological tenacity, purity of basic thoughts and propagation of national sentiment," said Dhankar during his keynote address at the inauguration of Sainik School Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Highlighting that duty towards the nation must always be kept above self-interest and political interest, the VP warned that a failure to do so would amount to an attack on India's civilisational ethos spanning several millennia.

"Today's India is not the same as it was ten years ago," Dhankhar said. "Article 370, which the framers of the Constitution called temporary, was considered permanent by some. In this decade, it has been abolished. This is today's India."

Major poll issue

Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, has become a central issue in the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections.

The two main regional parties in J&K - National Conference (NC) and People's Democratic Party (PDP) - have made the restoration of Article 370 a central theme in their poll manifestos.

The Congress, which has struck an alliance with the NC, has so far not made a statement on bringing back Article 370, instead choosing to focus on the demand for restoring full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

In contrast, the BJP has firmly stated that Article 370 is now a "thing of the past" and will never be reinstated.

Union home minister Amit Shah, while releasing the BJP's manifesto, reiterated that Article 370 is no longer part of the Constitution and its abrogation has ended the spirit of separatism that forced Kashmiri youth towards terrorism.

The BJP sees the abrogation of Article 370 as a key achievement and a move that has politically, economically, socially, and emotionally integrated J&K more closely with the rest of the nation.

Jammu and Kashmir will see polling in three phases: September 18, September 25 and October 1. The results will be declared on October 8.

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