Daily Times

In 2nd phase, the Government of India has initiated more lasting actions for complete merger of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) into the Indian Union. The UT of J&K, is directly under the control of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), governed through Lt. Governor by Home Minister Amit Shah. The government’s new amendments to various laws have been notified in just eight months, after scrapping of Article 370 in J&K and downgrading the Status of J&K, so that it remains directly under the control of MHA.

On Wednesday (1st April 2020), the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (equivalent to Pakistan’s Interior Ministry), has notified several new rules/laws applicable to UT of J&K, among them the most important was the criterion for new domicile law for UT of J&K, by scrapping the previous special rights for reservations all categories of jobs for the citizens born in J&K state.

MHA issued the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of State Laws) Order, 2020, through which it amended 109 laws and repealed 29 laws of the erstwhile State of J&K and inserted “domicile” clause in the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Decentralisation and Recruitment Act, 2010). The order was issued at 11.07 p.m. (mid night).

MHA notification (order) defined a domicile as one “who has resided for a period of 15 years in the UT of J&K or has studied for a period of seven years and appeared in Class 10th /12th examination in an educational institution located in the UT of J&K or who is registered as a migrant by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner (Migrants).’’

Moreover, the reservation for domicile would not apply to Group A and Group B posts, and like other UTs in the country, recruitment would be done by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), a national recruiting body, which also recruits personals for superior services such as the  Indian Administrative Services (IAS) and Indian Foreign Services (IFS). This criterion is already prevalent in the country and according to the norms as already applicable in other UTs (total 8 UTs in India) and 28 States.

Therefore, to implement the already existing recruitment processor and system, under the 2010 Act, the clause for “permanent resident of the State” has been substituted by “Domicile” of the UT J&K. The Act pertained to employment in the civil services comprising “district, divisional and State” cadre posts. Only permanent residents of J&K were eligible to apply for the gazetted and non-gazetted posts. The amendment allows non-domiciles also to apply to for all these administrative posts.

According to new law the “Children of Central Govt. officials, All India Services, Public Service Undertakings (PSUs), autonomous body of Centre, Public Sector Banks, officials of statutory bodies, Central Universities, recognised research institutes of Centre, who have served in J&K for a total period of 10 years” will be domiciles.

These new domicile norms in the long range, would most likely impact the demography profile of J&K, for which the J&K Apni Party, had expressed its apprehension during their maiden meetings in Delhi first with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Home Minister Amit Shah in February 2020. Both had assured the J&K Apni Party’s delegation led by its president Altaf Bukhari that nothing of that sorts would be done. But, the new changes in domicile rules for employment and recruitment procedure, which is expected to be adopted in the coming few months, reflected the reverse of what they had assured to the first political delegation from UT of J&K.

According to the MHA’s reply to a parliamentary panel on February 18, there are over 84,000 vacancies in UT of J&K, of which 22,078 pertain to Class IV employees, 54,375 to non-gazetted and 7,552 at the Gazetted level. The process to fill these vacancies is expected to begin in all possibility in the coming few months and hopefully completed much before the UT of J&K, is again granted the status of State.

Not caring much for the recent reported assurances given by the Home Minister Amit Shah to a delegation of the J&K Apni Party over the issue of expected changes in the demographic profile of the UT of J&K. The change of the demography of particular political areas is not a new concept in the world. There is an example of Israel, which had forcibly changed the demography of some of its areas to hoodwink the Palestinians. India is clearly, but tactfully moving on the same lines and direction in UT J&K.

Furthermore, the already announced process for the delimitation of the legislative’s seats, would also bring in considerable increase in the number of assemble constituency in UT of J&K. At present the total contestable seats of the J&K assembly are presently 85, after the separation of Ladakh as a union territory which had 4 seats. The Kashmir valley region has 46 seats, the Jammu region has 37 seats.

In the first phase, the special rights status clause enshrined in the constitution under Article 370 and Section 35-A, was to remove/abrogate on 5th August 2019. The state was also bifurcated into UT of J&K and UT of Ladakh.

In a systematic phased manner, the Union government has moved further to assimilate UT of J&K and its people into Indian Dominque. The Wednesday (2nd March, 2020) notification of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) made changes to the Public Safety Act (PSA) by removing a clause that prohibited J&K residents booked under the Act to be lodged in jails outside. Now onward, those arrested under PSA would be kept in Jails outside J&K and anywhere in India. Already some leaders and youth arrested from J&K before or after abrogation of article 370, were shifted from Srinagar and Jammu to jails in New Delhi and other cities farther from the national capital. These amendments have barred people from going to courts to seek shifting of their relatives to Jails in J&K.

The notification also scraps all the special privileges such as pension benefits such as car, driver, accommodation, phones, electricity, medical facilities and rent-free accommodation to former J&K Chief Ministers.

These above-mentioned amended rules have affected all the ex-chief Ministers including Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, both from National Conference, Mehbooba Mufti, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress, who have been stripped of all the special privileges and some other facilities.

Similarly, the Special privileges to the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature Members’ Pension Act, 1984, have also been amended by the MHA. It has also fixed the pension for former legislators and councillors at Rs 75,000 a month. Therefore, all the ex-chief minister and ex-legislators will get this much amount as a pension. But, it has not been a favour by MHA made to the ex-chief ministers, because, the Members of Parliament and Rajya Sabha and ex-legislators of all other states also get similar pension benefits.  Therefore, the pension of ex-chief ministers has not been scrapped.

Almost, all the regional political parties in UT of J&K except the BJP, have strongly condemned the move by the Modi government to redefine domicile rules for government jobs in the UT of J&K and said that it strengthens the apprehension over effecting the change of demographic as well. The new domicile rules are just an insult to the people of J&K and most of the political parties have slammed the Modi government to suddenly bring in changes not even caring for the threats to the life of people from the killer Covid-19 outbreak.

The PDP said the new rules are akin to rubbing salt into wounds, while the National Conference described the orders as hollow. The National Conference (NC), in a statement, described the new rules as “hollow” and questioned the timing of the move.

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), whose president and former J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, continues to be under detention, has demanded immediate rollback of the new rules. The PDP general secretary and former MLC Surinder Choudhary termed the new domicile order a “frighteningly ambivalent. It is akin to rubbing salt to the people’s wounds”, charged Surinder Chaudhary.

The J&K People’s Conference leader and Mayor of Srinagar Junaid Mattu termed the order “humiliating” to the people of J&K. After the meeting the prime minister, Altaf Bukhari, president J&K Apani Party had said that PM had assured him that no demographic change will be take place in J&K. He demanded reversal of the new rules immediately.

Demanding a special status for J&K under Schedule six of the Constitution of India and the restoration of the statehood status,” J&K Congress chief G.A. Mir said the move is a cruel joke with the rights of the local youth.

Welcoming the new rules of domicile and other amended laws, the BJP’s Kashmir spokesperson Altaf Thakur told media persons, the government move has been in line with its objective to rectify the wrongs of the various governments in J&K since 1947.

The writer is a senior journalist and Indo-Pak peace activists