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| Jammu Bar on warpath, Denounces Article 370 | | |
BY RUSTAM
JAMMU, JAN 13: The Jammu Bar Association (JBA), a premier organization of lawyers and advocates, is on the warpath. What has provoked the BAJ to adopt a threatening posture is not only what it calls the “anti-Jammu, anti-Ladakh and anti-India” recommendations as made by Justice Sageer Ahmed, chairman of Working Group on Centre-State Relations, but also the demands put forth by the Kashmir-based leaders like Mehbooba Mufti, President of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly.
The extent of the anger of the BAJ against Justice Sageer Ahmed and Mehbooba Mufti could be gauged from the fact that while it has warned the Prime Minister of India that any move on his part to implement any of his recommendations would provoke explosions in Jammu and Ladakh, it has declared in unambiguous language that the members of the Bar Association and the people of Jammu would not allow the likes of Mehbooba Mufti to enter Jammu province in case they continue to make divisive and communal demands ranging from soft borders to joint-control to self-rule and so on.
So much so, they have accused Mehbooba Mufti and other Kashmiri leaders of hatching a conspiracy aimed “at selling out Jammu and Kashmir”, as also accused the Government of India of bowing before “some sections of the international community that is willing to dilute the Indian position on J&K”. Not just this, the Bar Association has gone to the extent of demanding abrogation of Article 370 under which the State of Jammu and Kashmir enjoys the so-called special status, saying the repeal of this Article is the only course left to set things right in the militancy-affected and separatist-infested Jammu and Kashmir.
What the Bar Association President Sunil Sethi stated during the press conference on January 12 is what the community of lawyers and advocates has been doing and saying since December 23, when the Secretary to the fifth Working Group Ajit Kumar submitted the Justice Sageer Ahmed report to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, instead of the Prime Minister, who constituted the Working Group in 2006.
They gave their unqualified support to the shutdown call given by the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) and struck work on the day of shutdown and organized a protest rally the same day. They again struck work for two days (January 11 and 12) to register their most emphatic protest against the Justice Sageer Ahmed’s Kashmir and separatist-centric recommendations. And, they have now threatened an agitation similar to the one the people of Jammu province witnessed during June-August 2008, which not only consumed the Congress-led coalition government in the state on July 7, but also made the authorities to restore the Baltal land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) on a permanent basis and free of cost.
The Bar Association’s threatening posture is consistent with the prevailing mood in Jammu, Ladakh and other areas of the state, including the areas being inhabited these days by the displaced Kashmiri Hindus – all airing views that urge New Delhi to reject outright the Justice Sageer Ahmed’s report and integrate the state fully into India by abrogating Article 370.
A few words on Article 370 would be in order. The BAR Association President has demanded abrogation of this Article on the ground referred to above. His demand or the demand of the BAR Association is not irrational. It is a democratic demand and this demand, if accepted, would, undoubtedly, empower the people of the state to exercise all the rights which are available to all other Indians under the Indian Constitution.
Certain vested interests misguide the people of the state that the abrogation of Article 370 would enable the non-State Subjects to own immovable property in the state and obtain jobs under the State Government. This is not true. The fact is that Article 370 has nothing to do with what these vested interests in Kashmir and elsewhere advocate. It is the State Subject Definition of 1927 that has debarred the non-State Subjects to exercise the rights which are available to the State Subjects.
Article 370 has only given unbridled and extraordinary powers to the state’s political elite and bureaucracy. The ruling class and a section of the bureaucracy are exploiting Article 370 in order to deprive the people of their general political and economic rights, mint easy money, blackmail India and create a divide between the state and the Centre. Article 370 has practically debarred New Delhi from intervening in the state to keep a check on the vested interests who have been indulging in corrupt practices, subverting democratic institutions, maltreating the common people and looting and plundering the public wealth. Article 370 has been misused to the extent that it has created a high wall between the regions of the state and enabled the vested interests in Kashmir to perpetuate their domination over the people and the state’s political and economic institutions.
The demand put forth by the Bar Association needs to be viewed in the light of the negative impact of Article 370 on the state’s polity and society, as also in the light of the fact that it has only hampered the process of the state’s integration with India and undermined democracy and secularism.
It is time for New Delhi to consider the demands, coupled with unequivocal warnings, made by the Bar Association and act accordingly. In fact, it has no other option but to accept them and rein in those working for the state’s separation from India under one pretext or the other. What the Bar Association has demanded are the most popular demands.
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