Centre backs 370 move gains in Kashmir debate

There should only be one flag, one prime minister and one Constitution in India and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had made this possible, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday, hailing the Centre’s decision to scrap Jammu & Kashmir’s special status four years ago.

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Speaking briefly in the Lok Sabha during a debate on two bills on reservation in the Union territory, Shah also said that the concept of one flag, one PM and one Constitution — first coined by Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee — was not just a political slogan.

He was responding to comments by Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Saugata Ray.

“It is a very objectionable to say ‘one flag, one PM and one Constitution’ is a political statement. How can there be two PMs in one country? How can there be two Constitutions in one country? How can one country have two flags? Whoever had said so (earlier), did a wrong thing. Narendra Modi ji has done the work of rectifying it,” Shah said in the Lower House.

“It doesn’t matter whether you agree or disagree. The whole country wanted this and this is not an election slogan…We have been saying since 1950 that in this country, there should be one symbol, one Constitution and one PM, and we have implemented it as well.”

The comments came amid a debate on two bills — the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and Jammu & Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 — that were taken up for consideration and passing on Tuesday. The bills were introduced in Parliament on July 26 but were not taken up for discussion.