The uproar over the resolution taken in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly regarding the restoration of Article 370 is not showing any signs of stopping. The Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Wednesday (6 November 2024) passed a resolution to restore the state's special status under Article 370, which was abrogated by the central government in August 2019. National Conference leader and Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Chaudhary presented this proposal on the third day of the assembly session. But on Thursday i.e. 7th November, a ruckus broke out among the MLAs regarding this proposal. This disturbance escalated to the extent of a scuffle.
Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid's brother and his party Awami Ittehad MLA Khurshid Ahmed Shaikh showed banners in the Assembly demanding re-implementation of Article 370. He said, “This is absolutely legal. Yesterday also people of BJP wanted to capture the Speaker's chair.”
The pain of refugees
Refugees from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir demonstrated against this proposal in Jammu. While there is an uproar in the Assembly over the proposal to restore Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, now this uproar has reached the streets as well. After the removal of Article 370, more than 23,000 families of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir living in Jammu and Kashmir got such rights which they had not got in 70 years.
According to Labha Ram Gandhi, the leader of refugees from Pakistan and Kashmir in Jammu, he feels very sad when the voice comes from the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly regarding the restoration of Article 370. He said that under Article 370, refugees like him who came from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir were given the title of Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir. According to Gandhi, besides this, neither these families had the right to vote in Jammu and Kashmir nor could their children go to government jobs.
'Refugees did not get basic rights due to Article 370'
Actually, he is a refugee from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir who chose India instead of Pakistan in 1947. This family was living in India since 1947 but the then governments did not give them any right so that they could call themselves citizens of Jammu and Kashmir. According to Gandhi, when Article 370 was removed from Jammu and Kashmir, he celebrated Diwali because that day was not related to Diwali and these families got the rights which they were deliberately deprived of. The protesters raised slogans of Bharat Mata Ki Jai and said that they are hurt when such slogans are raised in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
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