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| 'Refugees from Pak need citizenship rights not hollow resolutions' | | Article 370 and BJP's double-speak | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 12: The Lok Sabha on Friday discussed the BJP-moved Private Member's Bill seeking grant of citizenship rights to the refugees from Pakistan, as also rehabilitation of the internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus in the Valley. The Bill was moved by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and supported by members of Treasury Benches.
The BJP members also raked up Article 370, termed it as "cancer" and demanded its repeal, saying that it was this temporary provision in the Indian Constitution that has deprived the refugees from Pakistan of their natural right to own immovable property in J&K, obtain jobs under the State Government and to exercise the right to vote in the Assembly, panchayat and local-bodies elections, right to higher and technical and professional education and right to bank loan.
In addition, the BJP members in the Lok Sabha asserted that Article 370 has created "fault lines between Jammu and Kashmir and national mainstream as it denied people civil and political rights that other citizens enjoy under the Constitution".
The BJP members in the Lok Sabha exposed themselves and their duplicity by opposing Article 370 and demanding its abrogation. In fact, they made an attempt to fool the nation by withholding the truth. The truth is that the BJP high command consisting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah and their henchmen like Ram Madhav and Avinash Rai Khanna and many RSS leaders abandoned their age-old demand seeking abrogation of Article 370 November 2014.
It was in November 2014 that the BJP high command refused to release the prepared and printed election manifesto, which was meant for J&K Assembly elections. It refused because the election manifesto contained a reference to Article 370 and promised a debate on it to find if it had helped or harmed the people of the State. The BJP high command took the decision after November 14, when Hina Bhat of Kashmir, who enjoyed very cordial relations with Ram Madhav and other important BJP leaders, threatened that she will pick up gun in case Article 370 was abrogated, as she was also a Kashmir, and had also informed press persons in Srinagar that the BJP election manifesto will contain no reference whatsoever to Article 370. She was so sure and so emphatic in her assertion.
That the BJP abandoned its demand seeking abrogation of Article 370 could also be seen from the PDP-BJP Agenda of Alliance, which was released to the Press by Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed and Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh on March 1, 2015. The Agenda of Alliance says "while recognizing the different positions and appreciating the perceptions BJP and PDP have on the constitutional status of J&K considering the political and legislative realities, the present position will be maintained on all the constitutional provisions pertaining to J&K including the special status in the Constitution of India".
So, this is the whole truth. The BJP must stop fooling itself and the nation. People across the nation have understood the BJP and what stands for. If the BJP sincerely wishes to win back the trust of the alienated nation and the persecuted and grossly discriminated segments of society, including the refugees from Pakistan, it has no other option but to use its position, strength and authority and ask the Union President to issue an executive order that brings the State at par with other States of the Union and scraps Article 370 and Article 35-A of the Indian Constitution.
The refugees from Pakistan, or for that matter the people of Jammu and Ladakh and Kashmiri Hindus and Sikhs, want concrete action on the ground and not the toothless and ineffective Private Member's Bill. |
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