Passing of the two Bills pertaining to Jammu & Kashmir by the Lower House of the Parliament has triggered a debate in the Union Territory (UT) with political parties calling this “undemocratic and in contrast to the judicial practices”.
Home Minister Amit Shah moved the Jammu & Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 on Wednesday.
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CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami on Thursday said that the Bills have been passed at a time when the Reorganisation Act itself is under judicial scrutiny and the Apex Court’s judgment was awaited.
“It has become a standard practice of the current dispensation to take undemocratic and unconstitutional decisions”, he said.
The Jammu & Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 replacing the terms like “weak and underprivileged classes” with “other backward classes” seems merely a linguistic revision. The government seems adamant on continuing to keep the J&K people disempowered by refusing to hold Assembly elections since 2018 despite completion of the delimitation process, upgradation of electoral rolls, and tall claims of normalcy, Tarigami said.
The nomination of two members from the Kashmiri Pandit community to the Legislative Assembly by the Lieutenant Governor reeks of the current dispensation’s intentions of never rehabilitating them in their native places, Tarigami claimed.
National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah said the BJP government has harmed the bond between Jammu & Kashmir and the rest of the country with the abrogation of Article 370 provisions, saying the people were not happy with the decisions.
Referring to the Bills pertaining to the UT, Omar said Article 370 is also being discussed and it is often asked in the Parliament what Article 370 has given to Jammu & Kashmir. But those who raise this question don’t like to hear the answer and the fact is that no central government would have given as much as the special provision gave to Jammu & Kashmir.
