Property bill justifies homeland demand: Pandits

Kashmiri Pandits are using the recent bill for denying rights over immovable property to Jammu and Kashmir women marrying non-state subjects to justify their demand for a separate homeland.

Alleging that it violated the sanctity of the Constitution, Panun Kashmir (PK) and Daughters of Vitasta (DOV) urged national political parties, particularly the Congress, not to 'submit to the blackmail politics' of the People's Democratic Party (PDP).

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"Passing of the bill is a retrogressive act. It aims at unleashing political currents that will strengthen the separatist movement in the state," PK chairman Ajay Chungroo told reporters in Delhi on Wednesday.

"No legislative body in the entire country can have the authority to enact laws, which are essentially discriminatory with respect to gender, place of birth or religion. No law can negate the fundamental rights that the Indian Constitution has conferred upon the people of the country.

"The step demonstrates the PDP government's approach is exclusivist and a blow to co-existence," he said adding, "In such a situation, reorganisation of the state becomes imperative."

DOV chairperson Shakti Bhan charged the PDP with 'endorsing dilution of Indian sovereignty over J&K as a solution of the Kashmir issue'.