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| Farooq Abdullah says NC if voted to power will amend Article 35-A | | The Tectonic Shift! | | Early Times Report
jammu, Aug 3: What could be termed as a major shift in the policy of national conference is the statement of its patriarch Farooq Abdullah who has said that the party is ready to amend Article 35-A if voted to power.
In an interview with a New Delhi based news portal the video of which has gone viral, Dr Farooq has stated that the national conference is ready to amend Article 35-A and will omit the gender bias out of it. He said that the central government should not itself tinker with JK's special status and if there is a need to amend any of its clause, it will be done by the national conference once it is voted too power. "If there is a gender bias in Article 35-A or in state subject law, we can take care of it in assembly. The central government shouldn't fiddle with it while there is no elected government in place in the state," said Farooq Abdullah.
If a woman is married outside the state, her children have no right to inherit or own property, get admission to a professional college and apply for government jobs in J&K despite their mother being from the Valley. Their only fault is that their mother has married a person who is not a permanent resident of J&K.
Rights groups have in the past pointed out that hundreds of women from the state are married to men who do not belong to the state. This has denied their children basic constitutional rights. The children of J&K men, who have married non-permanent residents, are, however, entitled to all basic rights unlike the women permanent residents who marry outside.
As national conference recently won all the three parliamentary seats from Jammu and Kashmir, the party is expecting to sweep the assembly polls too. This is, however, for the first time that NC has declared to amend the gender clause in Article 35-A.
Pertinently, chaos and confusion is already marring the scenes in Jammu and Kashmir as there are reports that the GOI may scarp the special status once and for all.
Local political parties such as NC and PDP urged the government to clarify its stand on the order as the alleged it has led to panic in the state. The government advisory to Amarnath yatris to curtail their travels coupled with a recent troop build-up in the state has led to state of panic, alleged BJP former ally PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti.
On Friday, the Army said it had foiled a plot to attack the Amarnath Yatra and alerted, Pakistan-based militants were planning to target the annual pilgrimage. Soon after, the state administration issued an advisory, asking tourists to curtail their stay in the Valley and return immediately.
These developments have taken place amid rumours in the Valley that the Union government may be planning to abrogate Article 35A that grants special rights to permanent residents of Kashmir. The state has been in under President's rule since last year after BJP withdrew support to coalition government in the state with PDP. |
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