Accusing Chief Minister Omar Abdullah of distorting facts to mislead his communal constituency and hoodwink general masses, state BJP president and MLA Jugal Kishore Sharma today accepted his challenge to hold debate on Article 370 and the results that followed on the implementation of this Article. “He must come forward to hold a debate on Article 370 with any BJP leader,” he said, and added that both the Congress and the NC have consistently misused Article 370 to deprive the people of the state of their fundamental rights and promote communalism, separatism and politics of regional discrimination. “It is because of Article 370 that the refugees from West Pakistan could not obtain citizenship rights and the Supreme Court of India in the 1980s regretted that it is because of the state’s special status that it could not dispose of write petition in their favour,” he said and asked Omar Abdullah and similar other rabble-rousers in the state to go through the Supreme Court judgment to update their knowledge.
Jugal Kishore Sharma, while addressing a press conference at party headquarters on Monday, alongwith Leader of Legislative Party Ashok Khjauria, State General Secretary Kavinder Gupta, Senior leader Prof. Hari Om and State Secretary Pawan Khajuria, debunked Omar Abdullah’s attack on BJP PM nominee Narendra Modi that he made a false statement that under Article 370 women in the state did not have the same rights as men in Jammu & Kashmir have, Jugal Kishore Sharma said that it is pity that the Chief Minister of the state is blissfully ignorant of the role the BJP played in 2004 and 2005 to ensure gender equality. “It was the BJP that approached the Jammu & Kashmir High Court in 2004 and 2005 to secure gender equality by seeking its indulgence to abolish the practice of making an endorsement of ‘valid till marriage’ and the High Court upheld the BJP pro-gender equality view. It was in August 2005 that the PDP-Congress coalition Government finally assured the High Court that it will implement the High Court order in letter and spirit,” Jugal Kishore Sharma reminded Omar Abdullah. The PDP-Congress government accepted the court verdict to avoid contempt proceedings. Jugal Kishore Sharma said though the BJP was quite happy with the judgment, it still wanted a regime that would entitle the children of the daughters of the state married outside to enjoy all citizenship rights available to the residents of the state and its struggle to achieve goes on unabated.
The state BJP president also pooh-poohed Omar Abdullah’s untenable assertion that Article 370 had nothing to do with state subject laws and calls his bluff saying it was Article 35A of the Indian Constitution that was unconstitutionally added to Article 35 by invoking Article 370 to empower the state government to grant or not grant citizenship rights to any section of society. “The Constitution (Application to J&K) Order, 1954 was issued under Article 370 that empowered the state government to ‘define the classes or persons’ who are, or shall be permanent residents of the State of J&K, or ‘conferring on such permanent residents any special rights and privileges or imposing upon other persons restrictions,” Jugal Kishore Sharma said. “Omar Abdullah’s desperate attempt to mislead the people will not fructify as the people are fully aware of the double game the NC has all along played,” he said. He said the BJP will welcome debate on Article 370 and Article 35 A of the Indian Constitution to expose the political bankruptcy of the NC, the Congress and the PDP and convince the people that Article 370 has caused immense damage not only to their legitimate interests but also the nation.
Jugal Kishore Sharma thanked the people of the state for making the Lalkar Rally a grand success and said more than one lakh people enthusiastically listened to BJP national president Rajnath Singh and BJP PM nominee Narendra Modi and an equal number of people could not make it to the venue because certain anti-BJP elements in the government tried their level best to sabotage the historic rally that has changed the political scenario of the state and established that a very strong pro-Narendra Modi and pro-BJP wave is sweeping the state like other parts of India. “Over two lakh people would have attended the rally, had the saboteurs not prevented the BJP supporters from entering the Stadium”.Jugal Kishore also took on Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tiwari and the PDP leadership and held them, like the NC, responsible for all the troubles facing the people of the state. He ridiculed Manish Tiwari’s statement that BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi’s demand for Abrogation of Article 370 ‘causes a threat to the unity and integrity of India and will lead to the growth of communalism” and said it is, in fact, the Congress and parties like the NC, which have all along subverted the polity both from within and without exploiting Article 370 for vote-bank politics.The state BJP president reassured the people of that state that his party would work for the well-being of the people and defeat the nefarious games of negative forces as represented by the Congress and its allies like the NC.