For the “idea of India to accommodate the idea of Jammu & Kashmir”, Article 35A that grants special status to the State “should not” be removed, said the State’s chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Friday after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reported ANI.
She further said that the basis of her PDP’s alliance with the BJP is that the “status quo of 370 has to be maintained”. She added that PM Modi “gave 100% assurance on the agenda of alliance”. Article 370 also accords the State special status.
Article 35A is being challenged in the Supreme Court. It empowers the Jammu and Kashmir legislature to define the state’s “permanent residents” and their special rights and privileges.
Mehbooba met opposition National Conference president Farooq Abdullah earlier this week to seek the support of his party on the issue.
The BJP’s J&K unit recently upped the ante with its spokesperson Virendra Gupta saying on Thursday that the time had come to bid farewell to Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution as they created a “separatist psyche”, reported PTI.
The controversy erupted in 2014 after an NGO ‘We the Citizens’ filed a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking that Article 35A be struck down. The Article was added to the Constitution by a Presidential order in 1954, it said.
While the State government contested the petition, saying the President had the power to incorporate a new provision in the Constitution by way of an order, the Centre, recently, expressed its reservations.
Article 35A is agenda of alliance with NDA, PM gave assurance on alliance: Mehbooba Mufti
