Article 35A: Omar takes on BJP

JAMMU: Former chief minister and working president of National Conference Omar Abdullah on Monday put the BJP in his line of fire, accusing it of taking legal recourse via an NGO to abolish Article 35 A of the Constitution which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

“The BJP, which realized that it won’t be possible to get special status of the state revoked via Parliament and Assembly, adopted a discreet way to get it scrapped via an NGO in the Supreme Court,” he said.

Omar was addressing the party’s district and block presidents here at the NC’s headquarters. “But let me remind all that the apex court in the past had twice stated that special status of J&K cannot be scrapped,” he said.

The petition, filed by a Delhibased NGO, We the citizens, demanded that the Article 35A should be held “unconstitutional” as the President could not have “amended the Constitution” by way of the 1954 order, and that it was only supposed to be a “temporary provision”.

The Article was never presented before Parliament, and came into effect immediately.

Omar also apprised them about “serious” ramifications if the special status of the state under Constitution ceased.

Abdullah said if Article 35 A was abolished then state subject laws introduced by the erstwhile Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh in 1927 and 1932 shall also cease. “People from outside the state will come here to settle down. They will take away government jobs at the expense of our children.