Thaindian News

New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday called upon the government to re-promulgate the ordinance on enemy properties and also asked it to review whether the policy on Jammu and Kashmir in the past 63 years had helped integrate the state or created further problems.
A party delegation led by senior leader L.K. Advani met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urged him to re-promulgate the enemy properties ordinance which came into effect from July 2 as it would lapse in a few days.

The delegation, which also included party leaders in both houses — Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, said the ordinance had been brought to annul the judgment of the Supreme Court that enabled the courts to direct the central government to divest properties vested with the Custodian of Enemy Properties. The meeting was also attended by Home Minister P. Chidambaram.

The party leaders, who submitted a memorandum, said that the legislation proposed by the government for replacement of the ordinance during the monsoon session of parliament could not culminate into a law due to lack of time and desire of parties for more time for reflection.

“The most prominent among the beneficiaries of the apex court judgment is the Raja of Mahmoodabad who claims to own more than a thousand properties out of the two thousand and odd number of properties declared as Enemy Property and therefore wealth owned by the Indian nation,” a memorandum submitted by the party leaders said.

On Jammu and Kashmir, the party leaders said the situation in the state was slipping out of control and accused the central government of not having a clear action plan.

In a separate memorandum on the situation in the state, the BJP leaders said that mistakes over the past 63 years had compounded the problem.

“Time has come to look back and review whether our policy in the past 63 years has led to a fuller integration of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into India or has generated further problems. Separate and special status, even though transient and temporary, gave rise to a psyche which prevented the full psychological integration as a state of India,” the party said.

Referring to the demands for dilution of Army’s presence in the valley and withdrawal of Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, the party said the nature of the demands by separatists and some other sections were intended to weaken India’s sovereignty.

Pointing out that there was need to strengthen the security scenario in the state, the party said that “mainstream political process should be resumed not by weakening India’s sovereignty but by letting the separatists know that ‘Azadi’ is not even a distant dream, it is an impossibility which can never be realized.”

“Jammu and Kashmir stands at a historic turn. We hope you will take steps which strengthen India’s sovereignty rather than weaken it,” the BJP leaders said.