New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday lashed out at the Modi government for doing away with Article 370 saying "national integration isn’t furthered by unilaterally tearing apart J&K, imprisoning elected representatives and violating our Constitution." "This nation is made by its people, not plots of land. This abuse of executive power has grave implications for our national security,"Gandhi tweeted 24 hours after the government decided to take the historic decision.

Gandhi was seen in the Lok Sabha this morning as the contentious Bill was taken up for discussion.

There are mixed reactions coming out of the Congress that has been headless for a while now.

Some Congress vehemently opposed the scrapping of the constitutional provision that accorded special status to Jammu and Kashmir, while some a few others raised voices of dissent and supported the government move.


Senior Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi said a "historical mistake" has been rectified by the government.  Echoing a similar view, his party colleague Deepender Hooda believed the abrogation of Article 370 "is in the interest of national integrity".

As the issue was debated intensely in the Lok Sabha today, Manish Tewari of the Congress came down heavily at the Centre."In last 70 years, several times we saw demands that union territories be converted into states but this is probably the first time in history that a state has been converted into union territory. There cannot be a bigger blow to federal structure than this."