Priya Sethi
Now as SC is scheduled to hear on Article 35 A on 27th August,just after two weeks from today and it is for the Bench to decide on merits and demerits of this 35A Article that has made different sections of society of Jammu and Kashmir voice their different opinions but the fact remains that the law not only discriminates with women but it also stagnates development in a big way.
Since, non-state subject holders cannot buy properties here or seek employment, institutions like All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) cannot practically function and give people much needed respite. Since good doctors know that even after serving here in Jammu or Srinagar AIIMS for decades they will have to wind and move back to their native places why descend here.
Similarly, how could political outfits of Jammu and Kashmir or social activists who claim to side with women in ensuring them their rights bar them from proprietary rights once they marry someone not having state subject. And still strange is that many mean politicians have even convinced women folk to debar them of their rights at par with any other women in India. That’s pathetic!
Furthermore, children of same women who marry Non-state subjects also lose right to have Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC) and hence can’t inherit properties as well. The defenders of such discriminatory laws should also know that those people (Safaikaramcharis) who had been running the show of our main local self-governance institutions like Corporations and Town Area Committees (TAC) are unable to find any other job for their wards.
Today even if any state government in J&K offers sops or concessions to industrialists, no big house prefers to make its presence felt here. This is because of the fact that good and financially sound industrial houses are denied property rights in our state. Still shocking is that rich and famous of Jammu and Kashmir including politicians and businessmen still own flats and houses in Pune, Bangalore, Delhi or any other city of their convenience and are doing business in Goa and other lucrative places.
But when it comes to others to replicate this gesture, Article 35A is used as ‘Great Wall of China’. And the nothing that in case this Article 35A is repealed entire India will flood Jammu and Kashmir State. The question arises that how many of us from Jammu and Kashmir have left our state to settle in other Indian states that don’t have such an Article in existence.
The country never discriminates with Jammu and Kashmir State and its subjects. Today we have several thousand children studying in rest of India, businessmen working in rest of India and people settling in rest of India as a matter of their right. Then why is that Jammu and Kashmir State can’t have good doctors, engineers, business houses or those contributors who could take the state to new heights while respecting our rights as well?
How unfortunate is it that we are dying to see our educated children to work for Infosys, TATA, Reliance or any other such company of international repute but dying to stop such companies from making their presence on our soil. That’s doublespeak! Even after seven decades West Pakistani refugees are still stateless persons.
Now that SC is scheduled to hear it on 27th Aug ,just after two weeks we the people of Jammu and Kashmir must stay calm and let the law takes its own course. Misguiding people or trying to vitiate atmosphere will do nothing good for the state as is being done by some political parties and fraternity members of other organisations who instead should become a party to case, in case they feel so.
The fact that Article 35A of the Indian Constitution was added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order issued by President Rajendra Prasad with the advice of the Union Government headed by Jawaharlal Nehru and not rooted through Parliament after debating makes it fragile. Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference was the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir at the time of the 1954 Presidential order and the Article 35A was added to the Constitution by the executive head without any discussion in the Parliament.
Part of text of the Article states that no non state-subject can seek employment under the State Government, acquire immovable property in the State, settle in the State or have right to scholarships and such other forms of aid as the State Government may provide whereas India provides all such facilities to people of Jammu and Kashmir in letter and spirit.
The apprehension that demographic status of the Jammu and Kashmir state will be changed is just a figment of imagination. Today when One Nation One Tax is in force which right or privilege of citizens of Jammu and Kashmir has been infringed? There’s no toll at Lakhanpur and only National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has its toll booths in India including that in J&K State and all human rights are intact as well.
(The writer is former minister, MLA and BJP spokesperson J&K)
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