Converting J&K into UT will disintegrate it: Panthers Party

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 7

National Panthers Party chief patron Bhim Singh on Monday described the latest Act of Parliament on the status of J&K as “a non-application of mind” by the ruling party.

He also termed the J&K Reorganisation Bill-2019 as “totally misleading which leads to disintegration of the 200-year-old state and demolishes its integrity”.

The party patron also hit out at the Centre for taking away J&K’s status as a state and converting it into a Union Territory (UT). “The decisions have disintegrated J&K, which was founded in 1846 by Maharaja Gulab Singh,” he told reporters here.

Bhim Singh, who is also a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court, said it was a “constitutional and unforgivable blunder” to take away the established status of J&K as a state and converting it into a UT.

“Converting J&K into a UT is not only harsh, it is against the letter and spirit of the history of J&K and has damaged the spirit of national integration,” he said.

He said Parliament should do justice and withdraw the last part of the Act leaving the state status of J&K intact. “This is the demand of people. J&K should be reorganised as a confederation of Jammu province and Kashmir valley state with separate Assemblies, secretariats and governments,” he suggested.

He, however, justified the scrapping of Article 35A, saying “it was inserted by the President in 1954 and its validity was only for six months. Its continuation was unconstitutional and unacceptable as it took over the control of Fundamental Rights of all Indian citizens in J&K”.