Adv Ankur Sharma: Art 35-A incorporated under pressure of ‘Muslim Communalism’

Ankur Sharma, Chairman IkkJutt Jammu, described Article 35-A as an instrument of creating a Muslim State on the territory of India and hoped that Supreme Court of India will take notice of this reality sooner or later and declare it unconstitutional, null and void.

He said that abrogation of Article 35-A is imperative in case, India has to remain a Democracy based upon right to equality and secular polity where all religions are equal.

Article 35-A is brazenly a subversive process of the Constitution of India and renders Indian Democracy redundant. Article 35-A is a testimony of the grim reality that Indian Constitution can be amended without the consent of the Parliament. Its dangerous import for Indian democracy and secularism has to be recognised.

Article 35-A has created a polity where all the Non-Muslims in J&K become second class subject people and females become subservient to male dominance. Therefore we saw State Government taking a stand on affidavit in Supreme Court in PIL titled Ankur Sharma V. Union of India and Ors. that majority community i.e Muslims will continue to take all Minority benefits otherwise meant for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians and Jains of J&K.

Article 35-A ensures that Legislative Assembly of J&K for all times to come shall remain Islamic in Charcter. It confers such powers on the State Legislative Assembly against Indian citizens which are not available even to the Parliament of India. It provides that J&K’s Legislative Assembly can violate fundamental rights of Indian citizens. This is something which is unheard of in the history of democracy and finds no parallel in other democracies of the world. Ironically, similar arrangement is often seen in Islamic Nations.

Ankur Sharma warned all political parties not to play politics of expediency/appeasement and delay a decision on the constitutional status of Articke 35-A. The arguments given by the government so far to see somehow that hearing on the case is postponed signifies that wittingly or unwittingly, Governments are becoming accomplices in the subversion of Indian Constitution.