Sheetal Banchariya
After the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A on August 5, 2019, which took away the special status of the state of Jammu Kashmir, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on October 26, 2020, announced several amendments to the land laws for Jammu Kashmir (J&K).
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Following the amendments in the land laws, anyone from any part of the country can now buy land in Jammu Kashmir, including agricultural land.
While the ruling government may be celebrating the introduction of new land laws, the young population across the country are directly or indirectly opposing the amendments.
Ayushman Koul, a Kashmiri pandit who is studying in a Delhi college, says that people of Jammu, who supported the BJP-led government during the abrogation of Article 370, are strongly opposing the new land laws, which a clear indication of how people were not taken on-board before announcing this unilateral decision.
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“Many people are seeing this decision only through an economic prism while ignoring the history of Jammu Kashmir and political aspirations of the people. As many political commentators are saying that this decision will bring in huge investments that will boost the economy of the region, they fail to realize that such growth will be at the cost of natural resources of the state. So, I feel that it becomes even more significant to provide constitutional safeguards to our state to preserve the fragile ecology of J&K,” Ayushman tells The Kashmiriyat.
Shilpi Chakravorty, who works as a content creator with a media conglomerate in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida, believes that the introduction of new land laws is a part of the consistent plan of the Modi administration to regain influence in the region.
“The BJP-led government’s actions are in line with Machiavelli’s theories to take over foreign land by settling your people, in this case, Hindus in the Kashmir valley. This strategy has come into the picture after the approach of a military occupation failed over the past years since the currently settled people are not in line with the central government ideas,” she tells The Kashmiriyat.
Since Jammu Kashmir was converted into a union territory last year, a lot of power from the state government was shifted to the central government. The new laws are just proof of central government exercising the newly acquired power in the region.
However, Kashmiri people are protesting in their ways against the land laws. A complete shutdown was observed in the region on October 31, 2020, as people’s disagreement with the central government’s political ideology.
Soumya Ranjan Das, a Mumbai-based writer and director, feels that while the land laws can bring industrialisation to the valley, it can easily be manipulated for personal and political gains.
While talking to The Kashmiriyat, Das said, “Some are arguing that the new land laws need to be introduced only in the valley for maintaining its age-old pluralistic cultural ethos and to maintain its secular credentials and Jammu province, which is already overburdened due to various migrations should be exempted of new laws. But, most of the local parties and organisations have stated that the new land ownership laws in Jammu Kashmir are anti-people.”
He considers this as another attack on the freedom of Jammu Kashmir citizens. “Jammu Kashmir is up for sale now. This is an upthrust for crony capitalism and a gift to dear friends by the central government. It is one of the ways of bringing industrialization to Jammu Kashmir, but it can be misused for political purposes and destabilize the region on a severe scale,” he tells The Kashmiriyat.
To be Continued…