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National
“Kashmir, part of a glorious and outstanding 5000-year-old civilisation” “Muslims are as much stakeholders in India as any other faith” JAMMU: Discounting the possibility of scrapping Article 370 of the Constitution in relation to Jammu and Kashmir, the opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) on Saturday asserted that the constitutional scheme itself was a safeguard against such attempts. Taking part in the discussion on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address to the State Legislature, senior party leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig said there was no way that the article could be done away with, without snapping the Constitutional ties between the State and the Union. Explaining the special position granted to the State, Mr. Baig said it was no concession to Jammu & Kashmir but a recognition of the distinct historical, cultural and ethnic status of the erstwhile princely State, which had decided to throw its lot with democratic India at the time of Independence. He said Kashmir had been at the receiving end of unfair, discriminatory and at times inhuman conduct of the powers that held it through force ever since the Mughals occupied it. “Be it [at the hands of] the Mughals, Afghans, Sikhs or Dogras, Kashmiri Muslims were treated no better than serfs and slaves, the policy of apartheid practised in some other parts of the world looked more humane than the treatment meted out to the Muslims of Kashmir, who incidentally were themselves part of a glorious and outstanding 5000-year-old civilisation” he added. Mr. Baig said in recognition of these facts it was decided at the time of accession that the State would retain the authority to accept or reject any future Constitution of India and obviously this was to be determined through a Constitutional process of debate, dialogue and consensus. It was through that process that the article was introduced into the Constitution by our founding fathers. “We are neither cowards nor beggars but the State has a special position guaranteed by the Constitution,” Mr. Baig said, referring to the Bharatiya Janata Party's stand on the subject. Quoting from the Constitution, he said it was wrong to say, as the BJP does, that the article was a hurdle in relations between the State and the Centre. Contrary to this it was only because of the article that Jammu & Kashmir had a Constitutional relationship with the Union. He said the article had virtually assumed a permanent status as it could be scrapped only through a resolution by the Constituent Assembly of Jammu & Kashmir that had ceased to exist since. Condemning the “malicious and insensitive” expressions by some members that branded Muslims of the country as anti-national, Mr. Baig said: “We are as much stakeholders in India as followers of any other faith are.”
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