Modi seeks discussion on Article 370,says Cong using it as a tool to hide their failures

Despite numerous barricades raised by state government on movement of people to the rally venue from within Jammu city and its outskirts,it turned out to be the biggest ever political rally by a politician seen in Jammu during the last three decades. What assumed significance was that it was attended by a large number of Muslims especially Gujjars and Bakerwals as well.

Pointing out that while secularism has come handy to politicians in power at the Centre to escape responsibility and accountability,he said that Article 370 is another tool in their hand for hiding their failures in Jammu and Kashmir. The worse is that they not use it as their shield,but they have also given it a communal colour,Modi said,regretting that they were not prepared even to discuss it.

He also called upon the constitutional experts to at least discuss at to what extent this special provision of the Indian Constitution has benefitted the people of Jammu and Kashmir. In an apparent reference that it has done only harm to them,the BJP leader pointed out that even the laws including 73rd and 74th amendments of the Indian Constitution implemented all over the country and on the basis of which Congress is now seeking votes in four states going to polls have not been made applicable to Jammu and Kashmir.

He regretted that those demanding autonomy for themselves were not prepared to empower panchayats and urban local bodies. He also criticised the state government for differentiating on the basis of gender and region.

Modi also had a dig on separatists in Kashmir,asking that their continuous chants of cession have benefited whom ? Except for 50 families in Kashmir,no one in the state has been benefited,he added.

Modi rakes up gender issue,cities Omar Abdullah as example

Narendra Modi,on Sunday compared Jammu Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his sister Sarrah Pilot to meticulously prove his point that how state’s separate laws differentiate on the basis of gender.

Pointing out that both men and women enjoy equal rights elsewhere the country,Modi asked people at his ”Lalkar rally’’ that whether they think that the rights available to state chief minister Omar Abdullah as a domicile of Jammu and Kashmir are available to his sister Sarrah Pilot? “No,she does not enjoy those rights,’’ Modi added in an apparent reference to the rights or inheritance and purchase of property available to a domicile of the state.

“I have not come here to talk about Hindu or Muslim,” he said and asked amidst applause from crowd that whether Sarrah should get those rights or not. She has been relieved of these rights as she has married to an outsider (non-domicile of Jammu Kashmir),he said.

Pointing out that these rights should be made available to Sarrah also,Modi said that it was not a fight for Hindu or Muslims but for the rights of women of the state. He also had a dig on BJP’s opponents in Delhi,saying as to why they were silent over the issue of equality for men and women in the state.

Soon after his rally,Omar on Twitter denied any truth in Modi’s allegations. “Either he lies or is ill informed,” he tweeted,adding that “women do not lose their domicile right by marrying non state subjects regardless of the propaganda surrounding the issue.”

Following amendment in state’s constitution in the wake of court orders,a girl from Jammu Kashmir now continues to retain her permanent resident status even after her marriage to an outsider. Though she can now inherit ancestral or her own property in the state after marriage,her husband or children cannot own it after her death as they are not treated domiciles of the state.

The law is silent on the issue,said a senior revenue official,admitting that such women are left with no choice except to sell their property within their life time or not inherit it at all. The law is still discriminatory and needed further amendment so that husband and children of such women are also treated domicile of the state as has been the case with men who marry women outside,said Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed advocate.