BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s statement about dilution of Article 370 has sparked off a fresh debate in Jammu and Kashmir with mainstream parties saying that the law was permanent.
Addressing a gathering of over 50,000 people at Maulana Azad Stadium in Jammu, Modi had on Sunday called for a debate on whether Article 370 has been beneficial for the State. “No. It has not done anything for the people of the State and is being communalised. However, I want the law-knowing people to discuss it,” he said.
Reacting to Modi’s remarks, former Union home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said even Parliament was not Constitutionally mandated to review the Act which grants special status to the State.
“Parliament is not constitutionally mandated to review or scrap Article 370. Even ordinary students of Constitutional history know that Article 370 providing special status to J&K has gained a permanent status after the Constitutional Assembly approved it,” Sayeed said.
He also warned that the State would rise against any attempt at diluting the special position. “Modi’s utterances have the potential of creating fissures within the State besides increasing the trust deficit between the State and the rest of the country,” he added.
Under Article 370, no person from any other State can buy land or property in J&K. Special status also means the State has its own penal code.
Read Today's TNIE Editorial: Timely Call for Debate over Article 370
Modi in his speech at Maulana Azad Stadium on Sunday had also claimed that women in the State had not been given equal rights unlike their counterparts in rest of the country. “Whatever rights J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is enjoying, his sister Sara cannot enjoy the same rights because she has been married outside Kashmir. Her rights have been snatched,” he said. Omar’s sister Sara is married to Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Sachin Pilot.
Reacting to Modi’s claims, Omar said that the Gujarat CM was either lying or was ill-informed. “He (Modi) very conveniently used me and my sister as examples to illustrate a point that has no bearing on truth. Either he lies or is ill informed.” he tweeted. PDP patron and former J&K CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said rights of women of J&K were equal as compared to the other parts of the country. “It is factually incorrect to say that women of J&K do not enjoy equal rights. Any woman of J&K who married outside does not lose her inheritance rights,” he said.
“I challenge him or any of his minions to reproduce verbatim the section of Article 370 that determines J&K State subject law,” Omar tweeted.
Omar’s uncle and firebrand National Conference leader Mustafa Kamal said the Article was a connecting link for relations between the Centre and J&K, the removal of which would adversely affect Centre-State relations.
J&K Pradesh Congress Committee chief and MP Saifuddin Soz said the BJP PM candidate was a confused person who “does not know the Constitution of India. This law needs no further debate.”
Defending Modi, BJP State unit challenged Omar to hold a debate on the issue with any BJP leader.
“We accept his (Omar) challenge to hold a debate,” said State BJP chief Jugal Kishore Sharma. Adopting a harder stance, party leader Ashok Khajuria said the Article was the main hurdle in integration of the State with India. “This Act has to go. We want its scrapping,” he said.