Jitendra expects ‘full integration’

“J&K decisions can withstand legal challenge”

JAMMU: Union minister and Member of Parliament from Udhampur Dr Jitendra Singh on Sunday voiced hope that the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir would be integrated with India, even as he asserted that the Centre's decisions on Jammu and Kashmir were taken after "thorough research" in accordance with constitutional provisions and can withstand any legal challenge.
Addressing a meet organised by the BJP's J&K unit at party headquarters in Jammu, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said after the revocation of Article 370 provisions, people should now pray for the integration of PoK with India in their lifetime.
"We are lucky that it (revoking of the special status) happened in our lifetime. It is because of the sacrifices of our three generations," Singh, who is Minister of State for the Prime Minister's Office, said .
He said, "After this historic step, let us move forward with a positive thinking of freeing PoK from the illegal occupation of Pakistan and making it an integral part of the country in accordance with the unanimously passed resolution in Parliament (in 1994)."
"Let us pray that we see the integration of PoK with the country and people freely visit Muzaffarabad (capital of PoK)," he added.
Defending the Centre's decision to scrap special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution and divide the state into two union territories, Singh said, "Nothing happened overnight. The bill was prepared by knowledgeable persons after a thorough research of Article 370 and the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution."
"Clause 3 of Article 370 empowers the President to declare any part of the provision inoperative totally or by exception anytime. It is in Jammu and Kashmir Constitution as well. Article 366 makes it clear that in the absence of Assembly, the governor is the legal authority," he added.
Since the government moves were affected earlier this month, several petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court challenging them.
Singh expressed confidence that the Centre's decisions would withstand any legal challenge.
"There will be no stay order...the move was worked out in accordance with the special provision and Jammu and Kashmir Constitution," he said.
The Supreme Court had on Friday refrained from examining the legal challenges to the changes made in the constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir, saying the petitions filed on the "serious issue" suffered from defects.
He criticised the Congress and the Kashmir-centric parties for their opposition to the moves.
The Congress and its Kashmir-centric allies such as the National Conference (NC) are rattled because the myth of Article 370 stands exposed, he said.
The Congress and its dynastic allies had dominated the political landscape for several decades by claiming that Article 370 was irrevocable and, at the same time, also sought to make the whole world believe that they are the only political option available for running the affairs of Jammu and Kashmir.
Singh said, besides the setback to development, people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh had suffered a huge damage by way of psychological isolation because of Article 370, which prevented them from nourishing themselves with a sense of belonging like citizens in other parts of India.
Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh will now embark on a new journey as a part of a global India, the union minister said.
"Only a handful of those who are worried about their fate are the ones who had been beneficiaries of 8 to 10-per cent voter turnout in the Valley, which enabled them to perpetuate their dynastic rule for generations together," he said.
Without naming the Congress for the criticism on the arrest of former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, the Union Minister said it was "unnecessarily being made a big issue".
"Under some compulsion or reason, the government has taken some steps to maintain peace. You (Congress) had arrested National Conference founder Sheikh Abdullah. Such a thing had not happened in Kashmir," he said, adding that the leaders were not being kept in solitary confinement.
"They are doing their workout at the gym, reading books and even ordering and watching Hollywood movies," he said.
Defending the move with regard to Article 370, he said some people were frustrated because they had created a narrative in the country that no power could abolish the special status being enjoyed by Jammu and Kashmir.
"We did it...Article 370 was a miscarriage of history and perhaps the gravest blunder in post-independence India,"he said, adding that it led to the lack of development and discrimination within regions but also a "psychological isolation that created mental barriers".
"Former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee talked about insaniyat (humanity), jamhuriyat (democracy), kashmiriyat to restore peace in Jammu and Kashmir. By this move, we have restored jamhuriyat (democracy) and have done the necessary course correction to pave a way for inasaniyat and kashmiriyat," Singh asserted.
"Is it humanity to send your own child outside for education and hand over stones and gun to the ward of a poor neighbour. The Kashmiriyat ended the day the Pandits were driven out from there," Singh said, adding that the democracy vanished when people started becoming members of Parliament and the state assembly with eight per cent voter turnout.
"Hope the day will come when a minimum voter turnout will be set for becoming a member of the Lok Sabha. Otherwise, it is a joke on the democracy," he said.
Singh added that in the 1996 assembly elections after several years of the governor's and president's rule in the state, the chief minister (Farooq Abdullah) was brought from abroad.
Without naming the National Conference or the PDP but apparently referring to these parties, he said they were spreading fear out of frustration as they used to propagate a notion that their presence was imperative for India in Kashmir.
"Now is the time to expose them on their own turf," he said.
We will show the mirror to the Congress, which deceived the nation on Article 370. The National Conference betrayed its own people and was not faithful to the Articles 370 and 35-A. Otherwise, they would not have brought so many amendments over the years in collaboration with the Congress at the Centre," he added.
The minister also allayed the apprehensions that people from outside would come and grab government jobs in Jammu and Kashmir.
The union minister said it was surprising that some people in Jammu were also falling prey to the negative propaganda.
"Some fringe elements have an agenda. We should not pay heed to their argument. Whatever had happened, nobody had ever imagined," he said.