PROF HARI OM
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who is leading the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition government, has annoyed the nation. There should be no doubt on it. Only the naïve could ignore what she said to shock the nation and undermine her constitutional office. As Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir State, she is constitutionally bound to uphold the Indian Constitution and India flag and rein in those who show disrespect to the symbols of Indian sovereignty.
On July 28, Mehbooba Mufti without mincing words threatened the nation that no one in Jammu and Kashmir will hold the national flag if (the atrocious and highly discriminatory) Article 35A was tinkered with.
“If the issue of Article 35A, which is in the Supreme Court, would be tinkered with there would be no one in Jammu and Kashmir to give shoulder to the Indian flag,” she said. “Any change in its status would invite repercussions and mean that nobody would be able to protect the Indian National Flag in Jammu and Kashmir,” she also said. (National flag is not dead; the nation is holding it high with utmost respect. It is the symbol of Indian sovereignty and it makes us remember those millions who fought for the motherland risking their lives and limbs.)
And, where did she make this unwarranted and provocative statement? Or, where did she held out a threat and undermined the National Tri-colour, the sacred symbol of the Indian nation, and caused a deliberate affront to the self-respect of all Indians, including over 6 million Jammu and Kashmir Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs, all devout Indians committed to the unity and integrity of the Mother India? In New Delhi, while speaking at two-day Jammu and Kashmir Conclave 2017 organised by a perverted Delhi-based think-tank BRIEF.
What is this Article 35A? What does it provide for? Who applied it to Jammu and Kashmir and when? Was it a constitutional fraud committed on the Indian nation? Was it not an act of treachery committed by “half-Hindu”, the so-called Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru? Did it not raise an impregnable wall between the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of the Indians whose money the Kashmiri Muslims loot and plunder and use it for worldly matters and boost anti-national activities in Kashmir?
Article 35A gives absolute power to the Jammu and Kashmir Government to grant or not to grant citizenship rights to any non-Permanent Resident of Jammu and Kashmir or a group of non-Permanent Residents of Jammu and Kashmir (read Indians other than the people of the State). Under this pernicious Article, no Indian, not even the President of India or the Prime Minister of India can acquire immovable property in Jammu and Kashmir if he/she is not a Permanent Resident of Jammu and Kashmir. Similarly, no non-Permanent Resident of Jammu and Kashmir can obtain any job under the Jammu and Kashmir Government.
This nasty Article was extended to Jammu and Kashmir through the “Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order issued by the President of India, Rajendra Prasad, on May 14, 1954. It was specifically devised to grant “protection to the State Subject laws that had already been notified in 1927 and 1932 during the rule of Maharaja Hari Singh”.
(Maharaja Hari Singh had enacted these laws to prevent the entry into Jammu and Kashmir of the Muslim Leaguers and other Muslims from the adjoining Punjab, who had been fomenting communal troubles in Kashmir and supporting the movement there aimed at getting the Treaty of Amritsar, March 1846, scrapped. Kashmir had become part of the Dogra (Jammu) Kingdom, and not the vice-versa. The Kashmiri Muslim leadership was opposed to this Treaty on the ground that the “British sold the life, honour and dignity of Kashmiri Muslims to the Dogra Maharaja, Gulab Singh, for Rs 75 lakh”.)
The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, May 14, 1954 was nothing but a conspiracy hatched by the Nehru dispensation to widen the already rather wide gulf between the people of Jammu & Kashmir and the rest of the Indians.
(Article 370 of October 1949 had already driven the State of Jammu and Kashmir outside the political and constitutional organisation of India and created a Muslim Republic within the Indian Republic. Nehru had committed this unpardonable sin to pander to the communalist of communalists Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, his friend, and enable Kashmiri Muslims to enslave Hindu Jammu and Buddhist Ladakh, exploit them to the hilt and loot and plunder the Jammu’s precious natural resources, including green-gold, Chenab waters and minerals.)
This was the only Article that was not discussed in the Parliament at all. In fact, the Nehru Government didn’t invoke Article 368 of the Indian Constitution to amend the Indian Constitution. In other words, Nehru Government forced down the nation’s throat this nasty Article without taking the Parliament into Confidence. To be more precise, Article 35A is the illegitimate child of Nehru’s Article 370.
An NGO, “We The Citizens”, has approached the Supreme Court of India and sought abrogation of Article 35A on the ground that it was an unconstitutional Article. The NGO has also sought scrapping of this Article, which defines “special privileges” enjoyed by Permanent Residents in matters related to employment, acquisition of immovable property, settlement in Jammu and Kashmir and scholarships.
While the PDP-BJP coalition government has filed an affidavit demanding dismissal of the petition filed by “We The Citizens”, The Government of India has said that it was not keen on filing an affidavit in the case, thus keeping its option open before the Apex court without committing itself to any position. The Attorney General has told the Apex court that it is a “sensitive issue” and it required a “wider discussion”. The Supreme Court has sent the case to a bigger Bench.
All this should put things in perspective and establish that Mehbooba Mufti has crossed the red line and offended the whole nation. It is no wonder then that almost all strategic affairs experts and former Army Generals have demanded her head and imposition of the Governor’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir. It is hoped that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would appreciate the fact that Mehbooba Mufti has undermined the National Tricolour and undo the wrong she committed talking into consideration the larger national interest. Not to do so would be only to allow her to cause irreparable damage to the paramount national interest in the sensitive and strategic Jammu and Kashmir, which the wounded nation can’t afford.
