Srinagar: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday while reacting to the statement of Finance Minister Arun Jaitely said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was trying to convert the constitutional relationship between Jammu and Kashmir and the Union of India into an “occupation”.
Senior PDP leader and former minister Naeem Akhtar said that BJP is trying to convert legal and constitutional relationship between Jammu and Kashmir and the Union into an “occupation through subterfuge and systemic subversion.”
“It is unfortunate that Sangh Parivar has fielded one of the better known lawyers of the country to oppose the Supreme Court orders which have upheld Article-35-A not once but twice in the past,” Akhtar said.
Akhtar said that Jaitley needs not to be told that the framing and the approval of the Constitution and its development is not an isolated event but it has a political constitutional history behind it which the Sang Parivar and some of their allies in the media try to overlook in pursuit of votes.
He said that Jaitley should know more than anybody else about the laws of the state and that the Article 35-A is not in any way a hurdle in investment in the state.
On Thursday Jaitley in a Facebook blog had said that the Article 35-A is “constitutionally vulnerable” and has denied JK a booming economy.
In a blog posted on Facebook titled ‘The Rule of Law and the State of Jammu & Kashmir’, Jaitley said the seven-decade history of the state of Jammu and Kashmir confronts changing India with several questions.
“Was the Nehruvian course, which the state had embarked, a historical blunder or was it the correct course to follow? Most Indians today believe that it is the former.
While calling the Article a ‘misadventure’ he said, “The State does not have adequate financial resources. Its ability to raise more has been crippled by Article 35-A. No investor is willing to set up an industry, hotel, private educational institutions or private hospitals since he can neither buy land or property nor can his executives do so. Their ward cannot get government jobs or admission to colleges.”
He further added, “Today, there are no major national or international chains which have set up hotel in a tourism centric State. This prevents enrichment, resource generation and job creation. Students have to travel all over, including Nepal and Bangladesh, to get college admissions. Engineering colleges and hospitals, including super-speciality facility set up by Central Government in Jammu are lying under-utilized or unutilized since Professors and Doctors from outside are unwilling to go there. Article 35A has prevented investment and dismantled the State’s economy.”
