Why Maharashtra, Haryana assembly elections are about Article 370 vs economy

NEW DELHI: The upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana are turning out to be a fierce battle between nullification of Article 370 and the state of Indian economy. Connecting it to nationalism, the ruling BJP has already declared that it is going to polls in the two states by making abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution as a referendum on the Narendra Modi government.Congress, on the other hand, has announced that it will highlight the “economic slowdown”.Statements of top leaders from both parties in the last few days strongly indicate that polls in Maharashtra and Haryana will be an Article 370 vs economy contest.Article 370BJP is launching the Jan Jagran Abhiyan (public awareness campaign) supporting abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A with regard to Jammu and Kashmir. As part of this programme, the party will organise 370 small indoor meetings and 35 big ones across the country, including six in Jammu and Kashmir.A few hours before the Prime Minister addressed the ‘Howdy, Modi!’ show in Houston on September 22, BJP president and Union home minister Amit Shah spoke at a seminar in Mumbai on the Modi government’s “historical decision” to abrogate Article 370.Amit Shah said the Mumbai event was significant because it was the first one after the Election Commission on September 21 announced dates for assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana.Shah appealed to the people of Maharashtra to decide whether they were in favour of abrogation of Article 370 and 35A or against it.Amit Shah has also been asking former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders of his party to clarify whether they were in favour or against the scrapping of Article 370.On September 18, while speaking at Jamtara in Jharkhand, which is scheduled to go to polls later this year, the BJP president said, "Our stand has been to remove Article 370 ever since it had been there," and asked "why the Congress felt 'stomach ache' following its abrogation?"Rahul Gandhi should tell people of Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana, when he goes there, whether he was with the decision to abrogate Article 370, he added.Shah also raked up the issue at Solapur in Maharashtra on September 1, when he said, "I ask Rahul Gandhi and Sharad Pawar to make their stand clear on our decision to abrogate Article 370 and 35A of the Constitution before they go for campaigning in Maharashtra."It was at Jind in Haryana on August 16 that Shah talked about the issue for the first time during a public rally. "Abrogation of Article 370 and 35A is a big milestone for the unity and integrity of India. We had been saying that Kashmir was an integral part of India. But Article 370 was giving some sort of message that something is still incomplete," he said."From Jind rally, I want to tell the country that after removal of Article 370, whatever stumbling block in the development and progress of Jammu and Kashmir, Leh and Ladakh was there, has now been removed."PM Modi has also been presenting the abrogation of Article 370 as one of the main achievements of his government.Addressing an election rally at Nashik in Maharashtra on September 19, Modi said the scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir was the wish of 130 crore Indians."The decision has been taken to save the Kashmiris from the cycle of violence, terror and separatism. They suffered for 40 years due to Delhi's (previous Congress-led governments) wrong policies and 42,000 people were killed," he said.Modi attacked opposition leaders and said instead of supporting the government on the decision taken in national interest, they were making comments for their selfish political interests."When the country is united over the decision on Kashmir, Congress and NCP leaders have not cooperated," he said.Narendra Modi referred to Article 370 even at the ‘Howdy, Modi!’ show on September 22.He said, “For 70 years our country had yet another big challenge to which India has now given farewell just a few days ago… Article 370 had deprived the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh from development and equal rights. Forces of terrorism and separatism were taking advantage of the situation.”He went on to say, “The rights given by the Constitution of India to the rest of Indians are now available to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh too. Discrimination against women, children and dalits has now ended there,” inviting a huge round of applause from the 50,000-strong audience at the Houston eventEconomyAs a counter to BJP’s Article 370 campaign, Congress is organising conventions from September 20 to 30 at the state level across the country to highlight the "economic slowdown".This will be followed by “massive agitations” across the country from October 15 to October 25 against the Modi government’s policies that have led to the “economic slowdown”.Besides, senior party leaders such as president Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi and former finance minister P Chidambaram, who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail, have been trying to corner the Modi government over the state of the economy.On September 18, Rahul tweeted, ““Howdy” economy doin’, Mr Modi? Ain’t too good it seems.” Two days later, he again tweeted, “Amazing what PM is ready to do for a stock market bump during his #HowdyIndianEconomy jamboree. At +1.4 lakh crore rupees, the Houston event is the world's most expensive event, ever! But, no event can hide the reality of the economic mess “HowdyModi” has driven India into.”Days earlier, when Congress leaders met at the party headquarters on September 12, Rahul Gandhi said, “What India needs isn’t propaganda, manipulated news cycles and foolish theories about millennials but a concrete plan to fix the economy that we can all get behind. Acknowledging that we have a problem is a good place to start.”While chairing the same meeting of the Congress general secretaries, state presidents and the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leaders, Sonia Gandhi said, “We are meeting at a time when there is a prolonged economic slump, when job losses are mounting by the day, when the confidence of the investors is getting shakier by the day, when the government appears more and more clueless and insensitive by the day.”Manmohan Singh said the country is today in the midst of a dangerous protracted slowdown. “The dangerous thing about the present situation is that the government is complacent enough not to realise that we are in the midst of a protracted economic slowdown,” he said, adding that his successor talks about achieving a 5 trillion dollar economy by 2024 but it now looks like a dream. “It is our responsibility and duty to convey this message to the country on how the BJP has misled the people and what is being done is only cosmetic to push up the atmosphere, but that the situation in the country is that what was promised is not being delivered,” he said.Singh also alleged that the government was following a policy of “tax terrorism” and warned of one million job losses if immediate steps were not taken to reverse the slump in the auto sector.Even though Chidambaram is having a brush with the law, he sought to portray that India’s decline of GDP growth rate to 5 per cent was a bigger concern than his arrest.On September 3, as Chidambaram stepped out of a special CBI court, a mediaperson sought a comment on his custody to which he replied, while showing his five fingers, "Five per cent. Do you know what is five per cent?"