Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 18: Maintaining that Article 370 which grants special status to J&K State was a temporary provision in the Indian Constitution, the newly elected BJP MP from Kathua, Udhampur and Doda Parliamentary constituency, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that his party was committed to its abrogation.
Participating in a seminar on the topic misuse of Article 370 for subverting the Constitution of India at Jammu Club here, organized by Universal Foundation, Dr Jitendra Singh asked the people to give his party 44 seats in the State Assembly in coming elections to pave the way for the abrogation of this Article.
“The abrogation of Article 370 is on BJP’s agenda and the party will definitely do away with it provided people give a mandate to us in the Assembly also as its abrogation was not possible without the approval of the State Assembly”, he added.
He said BJP will restart all the developmental projects including roads and power projects in the State to put it on the path of development.
Making a dig at NC, he said the party was exploiting the masses on the name of Article 370 to continue its dynastic rule.
The NC exploited the special status of the State for its own interests. The Government extended the term of Assembly when former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi extended term of legislators by six years and later Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah the then Chief Minister did not agree to reverse it to five years by taking advantage of Article 370 saying that the State has a special constitutional position.
Making a dig at the NC leadership for not empowering Panchayats in the State, Dr Jitendra Singh said that it is an irony that the party which clamors for autonomy is not ready to give autonomy to its people.
The recent statement of BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi calling for a debate on Article 370, Dr Singh said this does not mean that the party has changed its stand on the Article. “We wanted to convince those who are opposed to abrogation of Article 370 that it has deprived the people of the State from various benefits”, he added.
Earlier, Dineshwar Jamwal, the President of the Universal Foundation while welcoming the speakers and the audience, hoped that the fact that Jammu and Udhampur had returned parliamentarians like Jugal Kishore and Dr Jitendra Singh would lead to Jammu’s views and interests being adequately represented.
Dr Seema Nargotra, Assistant Professor in the Department of Law, University of Jammu pointed out to the manner in which Article 35 A had been misused when the State Legislature tried to deprive the women of the State (who married non permanent residents) of their status of permanent residents. She pointed out that these attempts were retrogressive in their outlook and were of dubious legality as Article 35 A empowered the State to make laws benefitting permanent residents vis a vis outsiders and not to discriminate within permanent residents on the basis of gender.
Sunil Sethi, the former president of the Bar Association of Jammu and a leading advocate pointed out that Article 370 was a temporary provision which was originally meant to have been removed by the Constituent Assembly of the State itself but this natural constitutional process that was followed in other princely states was interrupted in J&K by the tribal invasion. He gave illustrative examples of blatant gender discrimination and pointed out that this Article could either be removed by Amendment or by Presidential Notification alone given the fact that the Constituent Assembly of the State no longer existed.
Prof Dipankar Sengupta, HOD Department of Economics, University of Jammu pointed out to another mystery of Article 370. He pointed out that Article 368 which lays out the procedure for amending the constitution has itself been amended by an order of the President. He drew the attention of the audience to the manner in which Article 370 had been used by State level politicians to undermine Panchayati Raj institutions and make them vulnerable to pressures by anti-national forces.
The MLA from Bishnah, Ashwani Sharma asserted that the time had come for the abrogation of Article 370. He claimed that this provision gave rise to a feeling, particularly in the Valley that somehow the State was not a part of India. It thus encouraged the CM to make claims on the floor of Assembly that the State had acceded to India but that accession was only partial.
Daya Sagar pointed out to the genesis of Article 370 which abridged the powers of the Parliament to make laws with respect to Jammu and Kashmir. However, a constitutional fraud was perpetrated when the President using this Article as a cover inserted Article 35 A in the Constitution of India which was illegal and could have been done only by an Act of Parliament.
The proceedings were conducted by Mahesh Kaul, executive member of the Universal Foundation.
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