Page 27 - AUG2018E

Kashmir
photos: faisal khan any change in the demographics of
vailing in the state.
“The constitution of India is the What has
supreme law of India which has reinforced the
conferred special status to J&K. Any
attempt to fiddle with it will amount unease over 35A
to violating its basic structure,” Me- is that the Centre
hbooba wrote. “The people of J&K
placed great faith in our country has refused to
by rejecting the two-nation theory defend the law in
which was divisive & driven by reli-
gion. Instead, we chose a democrat- the court and the
ic and secular India. Now it is for the
nation to respect that decision in its Governor led state
entirety. Instead of attempting to government isn’t
dilute J&K’s special status they
should embrace it and treat Kash- expected to be in a
miris with dignity”. position to put up
But on ground it is the mainly the
separatist and civil society groups the best defence
Tehelka / 31 august 2018 27 www.Tehelka.com
which are leading the campaign.
Tension and tempers run high. The
local newspapers is filled with news
about the protests, statements, edi-
torials and analysis in defence of the
Article 35A.
“The court judgements, as
warned by the legal experts in the
Valley, tend to be unpredictable. But
the stakes in case of the Article 35A
are too high to be left to perceived
capriciousness of the court orders,”
an editorial in a local daily said. “The
implications of an adverse judge-
ment will be horrific. It confronts
the majority of the people of the
state with an existential challenge”.
Everybody is looking forward to
next hearing of the case in the Su-
preme Court. A sense of suspense
looms large. The majority of the
people of the state believe that the
attempt to abrogate the constitu-
tional provision is designed to alter
the demographic character of the
state.
“By taking away this safeguard,
BJP-RSS combine is trying to make
settlements in Kashmir like Israel in
Palestine to change the demogra-
phy and hence to bury the Kashmir
dispute for all times,” a statement is-
sued by the Kashmir Centre for So-
cial and Development Studies said.
“Even a layman understands that
the state by removing the safeguard
to our exclusive rights on our land
will alter the ratio of population.”
On the other hand, justifying
their fight for retention of Article
35A, separatists have said that do-
ing away with constitutional provi-
sion will detrimentally impact their
struggle for Azadi (freedom).
“We want the rulers of India to
know that every Kashmiri would
protect the state subject law with his
blood and life,” JKLF supremo Yasin
Malik said while addressing a pro-
test. “They know their right to self-
determination will be automatically
snatched from them if state subject
law is scrapped”.
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