NGO:Art 35A renders democracy redundant

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 3

Pinning high hopes on the next hearing in Supreme Court over the controversial Article 35A, a newly floated organisation — Ikk Jutt Jammu — on Friday described it (Art 35A) as an “instrument of creating a Muslim state” in the territory of India.

“I hope that the Supreme Court of India will take notice of this reality sooner or later and declare it unconstitutional, null and void,” Ankur Sharma, chairman, Ikk Jutt Jammu, told reporters here.

He said abrogation of Article 35A was imperative in the case “India has to remain a democracy based upon right to equality and secular polity where all religious are equal”.

“Article 35A is brazenly a subversive process of the Constitution of India and renders democracy redundant,” Sharma said, adding that the Article was a testimony of the grim reality that the Indian Constitution could be amended without the consent of Parliament.

“It is dangerous import for Indian democracy and secularism has to be recognised,” he said, adding, “the controversial Article has created a polity where all non-Muslims in J&K become second class subjects and women become subservient to men”.