BJP stirs regional divide over Article 35A, says Omar Abdullah

Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and Opposition National Conference (NC) chief Omar Abdullah on Monday accused the BJP of stirring up regional passions over Article 35A of the Constitution in the state.

“The BJP is trying to engineer a regional divide in Jammu and Kashmir over Article 35A of the Constitution,” he alleged. He said if the reported assurance of PM Narendra Modi to CM Mehbooba Mufti, that there would be no fiddling with the special status was true, then “why a counter affidavit has not been filed before the SC to defend Article 35A?”

Article 35A empowers the J&K Legislature to define “permanent residents” of the state and provide a special rights and privileges to those permanent residents.

Mr Abdullah who was speaking at a daylong convention of the NC’s functionaries in Jammu said, “Instead of defending it, the attorney general pitched for a larger debate on Article 35A.” He asked, “Why isn’t the Centre formally defending Article 35A in the SC as per the wishes of the people of J&K as a custodian of the Constitution?”

He also questioned the professionalism and seriousness of the response of the PDP-BJP to this “sensitive issue” and said the state’s counter affidavit has been condensed to just eleven pages, which speaks of the seriousness accorded to it.

The affidavit, he said, for some odd reasons are reported to be without any substance or any depth and worryingly the state government is putting up a weak case, perhaps intentionally so.

He said the preliminary affidavit actually contained nearly 70 pages but the state government didn’t allow this to be filed in the apex court and instead preferred a brief, token counter response, which was worrisome and raised a red flag on the role being played by the PDP-BJP government. He alleged, “All this is being done under an elaborate conspiracy to rob J&K of its special status and rights”. He urged the people to unite in fighting this “conspiracy” and foil the attempts being made to trample the Constitutional guarantees available to the state.

He also questioned the intention of the BJP and said whenever the situation turns against its “anti-J&K strategies”, it comes up with “sinister new agendas”. He expressed surprise over singling out of Jammu and Kashmir in respect of the special provisions related to State Subject Laws notwithstanding the fact that several other states like Himachal Pradesh, North Eastern States, Lakshadweep, etc. were having almost similar laws regarding ownership of land and definition of domicile regulations, etc.

He alleged, “The BJP has been hell-bent to trample the special status of Jammu and Kashmir for a long time, which was incidentally their election plank in 2014. But once they came to power, BJP realized that their designs cannot be achieved politically and therefore a short cut of proxy judicial activism through various affiliated NGOs has been initiated by clandestinely challenging the Article 35A through a ‘Mukhota.”

He cited implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as a latest example of the BJP’s design to attack the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and said that act too had deprived the State of its right to impose taxes. “We have now seen with distress our Chief Minister rushing to the Centre to seek tax concessions for various crucial sectors for the State such as horticulture and tourism with the GST Council in turn paying little attention”, he added.

Cautioning the people about the consequences of repealing Article 35A, Mr. Abdullah said Jammu will be worst hit before such repercussions are felt in the Valley. “Not only will jobs squeeze for local youth but our business sector too shall suffer tremors with influx of traders from outside the State. The local land owners will be deprived of their holdings,” he cautioned. He further said, “Whosoever intends to turn up in Jammu and Kashmir and push local businesses out of competition will find the Jammu region feasible because of its close proximity to the neighbouring states apart from the relatively more conducive security scenario”, he said and urged the people of Jammu to guard the State and their own interests against these sinister machinations of abrogating this Article”.

He said, “If Article 35A is repealed, we will traverse back to the unfortunate era of indignity, deprivation and oppression where Sheikh Mohammed Abdulah had steered out the people of the State”. He lauded the farsightedness of Maharaja Hari Singh, the last Dogra ruler, in bringing the State Subject Laws into effect in 1927. He said the Maharaja had brought these laws into effect to save the interests of those locals holding land and finding representation in the state administration as there were apprehensions of non-state subjects usurping the locals. He said the laws enacted 90 years ago have withstood the test of time in preserving the identity of the people of Jammu, Kashmir Valley and Ladakh besides preserving their legitimate rights.

“In case the Article 35A is scrapped, it will cause enormous and irrevocable damage to the interests of the people of the three regions, irrespective of their caste and religion”, he said and urged the NC cadre to generate awareness among the people about the adverse consequences of the abrogation of Article 35A.