Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley on Thursday said the "surreptitiously included" Article
35A of the Constitution had given the Jammu and Kashmir government the right
not just to discriminate between residents of the state and other Indian
citizens but also between two state citizens on the basis of declaring some as
permanent residents while leaving out others.Calling it "Constitutionally
vulnerable", Jaitley said the provision surreptitiously included by a
Presidential notification was neither a part of the original Constitution
framed by the Constituent Assembly, nor did it come as a Constitutional
amendment, which requires an approval by two-thirds majority of both houses of Parliament.In
a Facebook post, Jaitley asked why the rule of law that applied to the rest of
the country should not apply to the state."Should violence, separatism,
mass stone throwing, vicious ideological indoctrination be allowed on the plea
that if we check it, it will have a negative effect. It is this misconceived
policy that has proved to be counter-productive," he wrote, adding the
present government had decided that the rule of law must equally apply to the
state.Calling the Article 35A discriminatory, he said: "Lakhs of Indian
citizens in J&K vote in Lok Sabha elections but not in Assembly, municipal
or panchayat polls. Their children cannot get government jobs. They cannot own
property and their children cannot get admitted to governmental institutions.
The same applies to those who live elsewhere in the country. The heirs of
ladies marrying outside the state are disinherited from owning or inheriting
property."The BJP leader said the Article 35A had also hurt the people of
the state by preventing investment and dismantling the state's economy.
He said Jammu and
Kashmir did not have adequate financial resources and its ability to raise more
had been crippled by the said provision."No investor is willing to set up
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 in colleges."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," he added.Jaitley said that engineering colleges and hospitals
were lying under-utilised or unutilised since professors and doctors from
outside were unwilling to go there."Article 35A, which is Constitutionally
vulnerable, is used as a political shield by many but it hurts the common
citizen of the state the most. It denied them a booming economy, economic
activity and jobs," he said.The Minister added that the Central government
had always desired to allow more space to the mainstream parties in the Valley
so that the separatist space is shrunk but was let down by the two mainstream
parties of the state."The two major mainstream parties, even when they
condemned terrorism, it was always with 'ifs' and 'buts'. It is only their
absolute distancing from separatism, violence and terrorism that can create an
alternative space. Being soft in criticising separatism does no good. It is for
this reason that their own space has shrunk. This is the country's
disappointment with them," he said in an apparent reference to National
Conference and People's Democratic Party.