It is a well-known fact that most left-liberal organisations in India are actually anti-BJP organisations. They use various agenda only to attack the BJP, and actually they don’t believe in the causes that they pretend to be supporting. This was once again proved when Feminism In India (FII), a digital feminist platform, protested against the abolition of a constitutional provision which was highly discriminatory against women.
The activists of FII joined a protest organised by left-wing organisations against ‘government’s undemocratic handling’ of Article 370, which was abolished yesterday by the president of India with approval from the parliament. The Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which gave special status to the former state of Jammu and Kashmir, was also an anti-women provision in the constitution.
We are at the protest against the government’s undemocratic handling of #Article370 and to stand in solidarity with #Kashmir. #StandwithKashmir pic.twitter.com/EjE1aMo8UA
— Feminism in India (@FeminismInIndia) August 7, 2019
Article 35A was inserted in the constitution by the present using the provisions of Article 370, which had defined permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir. With Article 370, Article 35A has also been scrapped. According to Article 35A, if any women from Jammu and Kashmir had married a person from outside the state, such women had lost all the rights of property in J&K. They and their children could not own or buy property in the state. Even if Such women and their children resided in the state, they didn’t have property rights in the state. Therefore, this was an anti-women provision, and the Feminism In India should have been celebrating the abolition of this provision if they really believed in the rights of woman.
The Article 370 had meant that a large number of laws that apply to rest of India didn’t apply to Jammu and Kashmir. This included the Indian Penal Code. In a historic judgement, the Supreme Court had decriminalised homosexuality by striking down the section 377, but consensual homosexuality remained a crime in J&K as it was still a crime under Ranbir Penal Code applicable for the state. The FII claims to champion LGBT rights, but they are protesting against a move which promotes LGBT rights in Jammu and Kashmir.
There are many other provisions of law which will be applicable in the state now, which includes the Right to Information, Right to Education, Aadhaar etc. Real right activists should welcome the fact that these rights will be available for people in Jammu and Kashmir now. But propagandists disguised as right activists are protesting the move just because it has been implemented by the Modi government.
