Rajya Sabha’s leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley and J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday engaged in a verbal duel over Narendra Modi’s claim that women from the State lose their rights after marrying a person who does not belong to the State.
At an election rally in Jammu on Sunday, Modi had cited the example of Omar’s sister Sara, who is married to Union Minister Sachin Pilot, to claim that women did not have the same rights as men in J&K.
In a Facebook post, Jaitley questioned Omar how he could ignore a “dubious track record of his Party” on this issue and indulge in “discourteous tweets” on the subject. Jaitley claimed that a full bench of the High Court of J&K by a judgement dated October 7, 2002, re-interpreted the law and by a majority judgement held that a daughter marrying outside the State would not lose her status as a permanent resident.
“The National Conference Government which was in power in the State was represented in this case by its Advocate General MA Goni who vehemently opposed the plea of the daughters,” Jaitley wrote, claiming that the NC Government filed an SlP in the Supreme Court after the High Court judgement. Jaitley pointed out that the PDP-Congress Government in 2003 withdrew the SlP and introduced ‘The Jammu & Kashmir Resident (Disqualification) Bill 2004’, which attempted to statutorily nullify the progressive majority view taken by the High Court.
“The Bill was enthusiastically supported by the PDP and the National Conference. It sought to withdraw the status of a permanent resident from a daughter who married outside the State. The Bill was passed by the legislative Assembly,” he wrote on Facebook. This Bill ran into trouble in the legislative Council and was referred back to the State Assembly. “Recently, again moves have been made to re-enact the Bill,” Jaitley claimed, adding, “In 2010, a PDP member again introduced this Bill as a Private Member’s Bill in the legislative Council. Competitive statements have been made by leaders of the National Conference that they are committed to bring this Bill. Special status and Kashmiri identity have been pitted against women’s rights.”
Replying to Jaitley’s Facebook post, Omar admitted that the NC supported a Bill that would have continued the discriminatory framework against women some years ago. “In power for five years now NC has made no attempt to revive that Bill nor has any intention to is also a fact that can’t be denied. That Modi was knowingly or unknowingly misleading the people on this issue is a fact that can’t be denied, whatever Jaitley says,” Omar wrote on Twitter.
He said the issue was not what the NC did or did not do, but that the BJP PM candidate got his facts wrong on Sunday and now the BJP was diverting attention.