J K News Today Commentary

Srinagar

Kashmiri separatists have made a profound point about the Article 35 A of the Indian constitution  by making it a do or die matter for the real time existence of Kashmiris .

The people in the Valley  have come face to face with a fact that safeguarding of their rights and dignity of their identity lies in this provision . The politically conscious Kashmiris have  fixed their eyes on the contents of the Article 35 A that  have veered even the separatists to  the point that without this Constitutional provision in the Indian constitution they under threat of losing their identity.

The Article 35 A  that  extended to Jammu and Kashmir through a Presidential Order in May 1954  now is facing a legal challenge in the Supreme Court  of India  on the plea that it discriminates against the other citizens of the country for they cannot own immovable property in the State nor can they get jobs and scholarships.

Indeed this is a legal challenge and that Kashmiris  have viewed as a major challenge to their rights enshrined in the Indian constitution .

The challenge has painted Kashmiris  as the privileged lot in the country  and  the challengers want to do away with it .

The fact of the matter is that the  debate  on the Article 35 A in Kashmir  even before the Supreme Court  could hear it in the court room  has made it a vibrant issue  in the psyche of Kashmiris , that is also loudly heard in every corner .. Their chorus is  that this provision in the Indian constitution must be saved .

Separatists who had given a shut down call for August 5 and 6 for saving the protection of the Article  35 A that exists in the Indian constitution .  They may not say it , but the fact that has stood out is that the whole fight of theirs is for  saving this provision of the Indian constitution that grants special rights and privileges to the  permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir . There also exists the magnanimity of the Indian constitution that has  allowed  this  flexibility in which a special provision can be  included and implemented for the past 64 years, which no other constitution of any other country in the world has .

Separatists know  this profoundness of the Indian constitution .  It is this provision that has kept the citizens of the  other parts of the country  away from infringing on the constitutional rights provided, especially to the hereditary  permanent residents of the state . That is why the separatists and others in the Kashmir Valley are  pitching for keeping it  alive and part of the Indian constitution.