No citizen or journalist had prior knowledge of decision on Article 370: Govt

The central government has denied any common citizen having prior knowledge of the removal of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. 

Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, the Home Ministry said that no common citizen or journalist was already aware of the decision to remove Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said this in response to a written question by a Congress MP.

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The whole case is related to the chat leak of Arnab Goswami, the head and anchor of Republic TV.

In fact, recently a 5,000-page WhatsApp chat between Arnab and former Head of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), Partho Dasgupta, was leaked .

In the chat, Arnab told Dasgupta after the Pulwama terror attack that the government would make a big strike in Pakistan to respond to the attack and also take a big decision on Jammu and Kashmir.

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Ever since Arnab's chat was leaked, the Congress and other opposition parties were questioning the government in the case.

Accusing the government of compromising with national security, he had asked how Arnab already knew about the Balakot air strike and the removal of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and which person related to the government shared this sensitive information with him. 

Now at the commencement of the budget session of Parliament, Rajya Sabha MP of Congress Nasir Hussain had a written question to the Home Ministry in this regard.

In his question, he had asked whether it was true that this confidential information was shared with some citizens, including a journalist, before sharing information about the repeal of Article 370 with Parliament on August 5, 2019.

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Responding to the same question in Rajya Sabha today, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kishan Reddy said, "No sir, no common citizen or journalist was already aware of the decision on Article 370."

On August 5, 2019, the Narendra Modi government of the Center, taking a historic decision, removed Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. This article gave Jammu and Kashmir the status of a special state.

Apart from this, it was also decided to divide the state into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The bill related to it was introduced in Parliament and came into effect on October 31, 2019 after the approval of Parliament and the President.

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