Jammu and Kashmir unites to defend Article 35A

Srinagar: The Kashmir Valley is united, the Jammu region divided and Ladakh seems indifferent as a row over the possible abrogation of Article 35A of the Constitution intensifies in Jammu and Kashmir. The issue has raked up an intense debate in the rest of the country, as well.

Article 35A empowers the J&K legislature to define “permanent residents” of the state and provide special rights and privileges to them. It was added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order in 1954 in exercise of the powers conferred by clause(1) of Article 370. Article 370 guarantees a special status to Jammu and Kashmir within the Indian Union.

However, a petition seeking the removal of Article 35A is currently pending before a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court. An NGO, We the Citizens, believed to be an RSS think-tank, challenged the Article in 2014. In another case filed in the SC in July, two Kashmiri women said that the state’s laws from Article 35A had disenfranchised their children. On Tuesday, the SC sought the response of the Centre on yet another plea challenging validity of Article 370.

The mainstream political parties, as well as separatist parties, see in these moves a serious threat to the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. They have been joined by various social, religious, trade and lawyers’ bodies in a “fight against the onslaught against the special status” of the state.

In a significant development, chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday drove to her political bête noire National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah’s residence to discuss the issue with him and his son, former chief minister Omar Abdullah, who is also the leader of the NC Legislature Party. The two sides agreed that if Article 35A was abrogated by the SC, it might result in the abolition of the State Subject law, introduced by Maharaja Hari Singh in 1927, according to which only permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir can own immovable property in the state and enjoy benefits like employment in government departments.

Ms Mufti sought the NC leadership’s support in defending Article 35A. She also requested Farooq Abdullah to raise the issue in the Lok Sabha and explain its ramifications on the relations between the people of the state and rest of the country.

The meet came a day after Farooq Abdullah chaired a meeting of all  Opposition parties at his residence. In the meeting, it was decided that a united front would defend and protect Article 35A in the SC and also, launch a campaign among the people of all three regions of the state on the “repercussions” that the abrogation of Article 35A would have.

Mr Abdullah later warned of an “Amarnath land row-like uprising” if Article 35A was abolished.

The other parties whose leaders attended the meet were CPI(M), Congress, Peoples’ Democratic Front and Democratic Party Nationalist.

The same day, the chief minister said that the special status enjoyed by the state needed to be protected and preserved at any cost. Ms Mufti had, in July, said in New Delhi that if Article 35A was tampered with, there would be no one in Kashmir to hold the Tricolour.

Ms. Mufti on Wednesday held a separate meet with Opposition parties at her official residence. Those who met her included CPIM’s state secretary Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami, PDF chairman Hakeem Muhammad Yaseen and DPN president Ghulam Hassan Mir.  “We discussed the serious consequences of removal of Article 35A on Jammu and Kashmir and its relations with the rest of the country,” said a spokesman.

Meanwhile, key separatist leaders — Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik — has called a general strike in Kashmir on August 12 against “Sangh Parivar-backed attempts” to fiddle with the special status of J&K.

“These attempts are aimed at changing the demography of the state and dilute its Muslim-majority character,” it has alleged.

Various other like-minded political, social and religious organizations and groups besides the lawyers’ associations have endorsed the call.

On the other hand, political parties in Jammu region are divided on the issue. Some of these are against ‘opening a Pandora’s box’ by fiddling with the State’s special status guaranteed in the Constitution of India in a “peculiar circumstances” soon after the accession. But others are in favour of removing the constitutional barriers in complete integration of Jammu and Kashmir with rest of the country. The BJP is among the parties which has all along supported “complete integration” call but  says that the “coalition compulsion” are stopping it from speaking on abrogation of Article 35A and Article 370 now.

The coalition government with the PDP is run as per ‘Agenda of the Alliance’. It is because of coalition compulsions that the BJP is not speaking about abrogation of special status or Article 35-A,” Sat Sharma, the BJP’s State president and MLA said on Tuesday. He added that the BJP will not speak on the petition seeking abrogation of Article 35A till SC gives its ruling. “Our party has decided not to give any view point on the Article 35A till the Supreme Court delivers its decision on the petition on its removal,” he said.