Parliament Winter Session: Amid the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 unanimously with a voice vote.
The bills would amend key laws in the Union Territory aimed at providing "rights to those who faced injustice". Both bills were passed amid several Opposition leaders raising issues to reinstate the statehood of the erstwhile state and announce elections there. Last week, both bills were passed by the Lok Sabha.
Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 aimed at providing "rights to those who faced injustice" and were deprived of their rights in the Union Territory. The Bills were jointly discussed a few hours after the Supreme Court passed a judgement upholding the constitutional validity of the Executive Order abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution and scrapping statehood for Jammu and Kashmir.
J-K Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023
The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 is aimed at amending the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004. The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004 provided reservation in jobs and admission in professional institutions to Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and other socially and educationally backward classes.
J-K Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 seeks to amend the 2019 Act and provide representation in the Legislative Assembly to the Kashmiri Migrants and displaced persons from the PoK. It seeks to nominate two members from the Kashmiri migrant community and one person representing the displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to the Legislative Assembly. The amended bill proposes to increase the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly to 90 from 83.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 seeks to reserve seats for the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. It seeks to insert new sections 15A and 15B in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 for the Lieutenant Governor to nominate not more than two members, one of whom shall be a woman, from the community of "Kashmiri Migrants" and one Member from "Displaced Persons from Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir", to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
Shah in Rajya Sabha
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha on the two Jammu and Kashmir Bills, Union Minister Amit Shah said this is an important day as both these Bills will be passed and also because this will be written in golden letters in the history of Jammu and Kashmir and India.
"Today, the Supreme Court upheld the intention behind the Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Bill, 2019, its constitutional validity and the process," Shah said, adding one of the Bills seeks to represent those who became refugees in their own country and also reserves one seat in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly for people who have been displaced from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Amit Shah tagets Nehru
During his speech in Rajya Sabha, Shah once again targeted former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and blamed him for Pakistan's illegal occupation of a portion of Kashmir, known as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). "Jahan tak tang nazariye ka sawaal hai, desh ki ek bhi inch zameen ka sawaal hai, humara nazariya tang rahega, hum dil bada nahi kar sakte. No one has the right to give away a section of our land to show off their big heart," Shah said. Shah also gave a reference to Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw and said that it was due to Sardar Patel's intervention that the Indian Army was sent when Kashmir was being invaded by the Pakistanis.
(With inputs from ANI)
