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| Panthers Party takes the plunge, opposes rehabilitation policy | | Supreme Court To Hear The Case Today | | Rustam
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, July 3: The Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) has done it. It has knocked at the doors of the Supreme Court of India and urged it through a petition that the state government and the union government be barred from implementing the decision of the J&K Government on the return to and rehabilitation of Pakistan-trained Kashmiri militants in the Valley. It filed petition on July 1. The Vacation Bench of the Supreme Court would hear the case on Monday (July 4).
It needs to be noted that the state government has cleared the return of 100-odd Pakistan- trained terrorists and rehabilitate them in the state. According to the petition, the state government has recommended the return to Kashmir of about 1300 more militants and the union government has not registered any objection again the move that has the potential of endangering national unity and undermining the country's sovereignty. In fact, the petitioner has asserted, and very rightly and strongly, that the decision of the state government and the central government, if implemented, would "threaten the security of the state and disturb communal harmony."
JKNPP chairman Bhim Singh has urged the Supreme Court to issue stay order on the operation of the government decision on the rehabilitation policy the way it stayed the operation of the Resettlement Act, 1981, which had a similar provision ensuring return of those Muslims of the state who had "voluntarily migrated to Pakistan" in the wake of the country's communal partition in 1947 and became Pakistani citizens. "The government of J&K in its colourful exercise has tried to achieve the same objective by ensuring return of those militants who had migrated to Pakistan 21 years back voluntarily and since had undergone armed training couldbe even associated with Al-Qaeda," has been the upshot of the argument Bhim Singh has advanced in the petition. He has, in addition, sought stay on the operation of the rehabilitation policy for those who are no more citizens of India and have indulged in waging war against India."
The Resettlement Act is, it needs to be underlined, also termed in Jammu as "Black Act." Had the Supreme Court not stayed the operation of the said Act most of those (mostly refugees from POJK) living in the evacuee property in Jammu and elsewhere in the Jammu province since decades would have become homeless. The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and senior BJP leader Atral Bihari Vajpayee had also opposed this Act" on the ground that the Resettlement AcT could endanger the national security It is significant to note that it was none other than Bhim Singh himself who had approached the Supreme Court and obtained stay on the operation of the draconian and highly ill-motivated Resettlement Act.
Bhim Singh deserves appreciation, notwithstanding his past acts of omission and commission, including the part he played in securing the release of Bitta Karate, killer of nearly two dozen Kashmiri Hindus, and his demand for general amnesty for those booked under various heinous crimes, including crimes against the state. He does deserve credit for his latest nationalist move, notwithstanding the inconsistencies he is known for.
One cannot at this point in time say what view the Supreme Court finally takes on the petition. But the fact remains that Bhim Singh has played his role taking into consideration the grave evil that would follow on the rehabilitation of the hardcore Pakistani-trained and indoctrinated militants. What he has done is what every patriotic citizen of the country should do. It is regrettable that the BJP has not taken up this issue. Perhaps, the BJP stands for the return to and rehabilitation of militants in the state. It is also disturbing that the Congress has forgotten Indira Gandhi and, instead of fighting for the cause of the refugees in Jammu, made common cause with the NC by becoming a party to the highly controversial decision. |
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