Srinagar (Jammu And Kashmir): Whittling down its demand from restoration of article 370, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today demanded that the BJP-led government should grant Article 371 status to Jammu and Kashmir that grants protection to ownership of land to establishment of development boards.
PDP leader Basharat Bukhari, who re-joined the party recently said that the BJP is celebrating the August 5 as “a big day” as they abrogated the article 370 on this day in 2019 and claimed that the article was hindrance to the Constitution of India in Jammu and Kashmir.
“I am requesting them (the BJP government) to bring us under Article 371 until they (BJP) is in the government. Article 371 has several provisions from A-J, so until they are here, they should bring Jammu and Kashmir under Article 371,” Bukhari said in the PDP office in Srinagar in a press conference. Bukhari, who was with the PDP, had quit the party after the abrogation of Article 370 and joined the NC, then jumped ship to the Peoples' Conference before returning to the PDP.
Bukahri said that the abrogation of the article 370 has done no good for the BJP, even in Jammu, where the jobs, mining rights and wine business of the locals have been snatched after August 5, 2019.
The BJP in Jammu and Kashmir celebrated the fifth anniversary of Article 70 abrogation as the 'Ekatma Mahatsav' while the opposition Congress called it a 'Black Day' and held protests in Jammu and Srinagar.
Article 371 of the constitution of India grants some temporary, transitional and special powers for 12 states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa and Karnataka. This article grants special provisions which range from protection to ownership of land to establishment of development boards.
Bukhari, who was law and revenue minister in PDP-BJP coalition in 2014, was quick to add that “we stand by what we have been saying about August 5, 2019. We are hopeful that one day some government will be formed in India which will restore Article 370 to Jammu and Kashmir”.
Bukhari’s demand has put the PDP leadership in dock as his demand is in stark contrast to his party president Mehbooba Mufti who has been very vocal against the abrogation of Article 370 and division of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.
Mehbooba has been consistently demanding restoration of article 370 and all constitutional rights which existed for Jammu and Kashmir before abrogation of article 370. Infact, she was the only political leader who after her release from detention in October 2020 had said that her struggle was not confined to the restoration of Article 370, but the resolution of the Kashmir issue as well.
“Those who think we will forget Article 370 are living in fool's paradise. People have given a lot of sacrifices and we won’t allow the sacrifices to go to waste," Mehbooba had said in her first press conference after her release from 14-months long detention in October 2020.
Bukhari’s article 371 status demand is in sync with the people of Ladakh who are protesting from last years for this status and his former colleague in PDP, Muzaffar Beig, who was the first political leader to pitch for Article 371 status from Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of article 370.
