Will continue to claim PoK territories: Shah

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, Aug 6

Home Minister Amit Shah today said in the Lok Sabha that India would continue to claim the territories of Jammu and Kashmir under Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). He was replying to a debate on a resolution for abrogating provisions of Article 370 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill 2019. He also said the Modi government would have no hesitation in restoring statehood to Jammu and Kashmir when normalcy returns.

“India will continue to claim Pakistan-occupied Kashmir,” he stressed. Ruling out talks with the Hurriyat Conference, the Home Minister said the government was ready to speak to the people of Kashmir. 

The Parliament today repealed Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and passed a landmark Bill to bifurcate the state as the Lok Sabha voted with an overwhelming majority to scrap Article 370 that allowed the border state to have its own Constitution, flag and a penal code. After Home Minister Amit Shah described Article 370 as a tool in the hands of Pakistan and terrorists and a hurdle in the development of J&K, the Lok Sabha voted with a four-fifth majority to scrap it and to bifurcate the state. The Rajya Sabha had approved the J&K Reorganisation Bill, 2019, yesterday.

Today, the government resolution on abrogation of Article 370 was passed with 351 votes in favour and 72 against. The JK Reorganisation Bill was later passed with an even greater majority — 370 votes in favour and 70 against. The Congress, DMK, National Conference, AIMIM, IUML and the Left voted against the Bill. 

The NCP, SP (barring Mulayam Singh Yadav who voted against both provisions) and TMC walked out. AAP was absent.  Arguing for scrapping special status to the state, Shah spoke of a range of laws for public welfare, gender justice, SC/ST welfare and child safety that are not currently applicable to J&K due to Article 370, such as anti-child marriage law, National Commission for Minorities Act, the delimitation law, Right to Education Act and anti-corruption laws.

In an interesting insight, he said J&K’s special status prevented Partition refugees like Manmohan Singh and IK Gujral from settling in Kashmir. “Manmohan Singh and IK Gujral settled in Punjab and went on to become PMs. A refugee from West Pakistan residing in J&K can’t even become a councillor and has no voting rights. This is due to Article 370. Is this fair,” he asked.

He alleged that “three political families of J&K” had exploited Article 370 to perpetuate their empires while denying Kashmiris even the right to local self-governance. Despite insistence from Congress benches, Shah didn’t name these “families”.

As PM Narendra Modi watched, Shah spoke of Pakistan using Article 370 to fan secession in J&K. “Article 370 worked both as a fertiliser and water for terrorism…It found a mention in the documents Zia-ul-Haq used to unleash Pakistan-sponsored terror in the Valley in 1988. From then to now, 41,900 people have been killed in the state. Do we still want to tread the beaten path,” Shah asked the Congress after its leaders Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Manish Tewari and Shashi Tharoor rejected the government moves

The dominant mood in the House was jubilant. Amid chants of “Bharat Mata ki Jai”, Shah allayed Opposition’s fears, saying JK’s full state status would be restored the moment normalcy returned.

On Congress objections on absence of consultations with the state, Shah asked, “How long will we keep talking?” He also rejected the Opposition charge that the J&K moves were communal. His poser to the Congress here was: “BR Ambedkar, Madhu Limaye and Ram Manohar Lohia were bitter critics of Article 370. Were they not secular?”