{"id":109164,"date":"2020-11-29T16:52:57","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T23:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=109164"},"modified":"2020-11-29T16:52:57","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T23:52:57","slug":"the-roshni-act-abrogated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/11\/29\/the-roshni-act-abrogated\/","title":{"rendered":"THE ROSHNI ACT ABROGATED"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALI SUKHANVER<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The\nIndian government has recently abrogated the Jammu and Kashmir State Land Act,\n2001 commonly known as Roshni Act. This Act was introduced in 2001 when Farooq\nAbdullah was the Chief Minister. The Act granted ownership of Jammu and Kashmir\nstate land to the illegal-occupants upon payment of a sum to be determined by\nthe Government of Jammu and Kashmir. \nMost of these occupants belonged to the very poor strata of society. The\nbasic purpose of the Roshni Act was to raise money for power projects.\nInitially the cut-off year for this Act was set as 1990 but later on the date\nwas extended to 2004 and then to 2007. Now in 2020, after the abrogation of the\nArticle 370 and 35-A the Modi government realized that without abrogation of\nthe Roshni Act, it cannot be successful in changing the demography of the\nIIOJK. Media reports say that the Modi government has been feeling an unseen\nthreat that the Roshni Act would in some way or the other help and support the\nMuslim and the Sikh population of the area because this Act provided them a lot\nof privilege over the Hindu population. Now abrogation of this Act would leave\nthousands fearing that they will become landless.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmembers of the Gujjar and Bakarwal communities would be the worst victim to\nthis abrogation of the Roshni Act; say experts on Jammu & Kashmir affairs.\nGujjar and Bakarwal are two nomadic tribes of Jammu and Kashmir. It is said,\nThey are wedded with nature and in close bondages with their traditions.\u201d The\npeople from Gujjar and Bakarwal tribes of Jammu and Kashmir are basically\nherders of goats and sheep.  They spend\ntheir winters in the low hills of the Siwalik range with their herds because it\nis easier for them to get good grazing grounds for their herds in the dry scrub\nforests. It is said that in IIOJK, the earth is shrinking for Gujjar and\nBakarwal tribes because most of them are the Muslims. Gujjar and Bakarwal\ncommunities have historically been poor and landless in IIOJK. The situation\nhas become more painful for them after BJP\u2019s coming in power. The extremists of\nBJP are seriously working on different plans of wiping them off the Jammu\nKashmir Valley. Recent abrogation of the Roshni Act is also a part of the same inhuman\nplanning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nBJP extremists are of the opinion that in the name of the Roshni Act a \u2018Land\nJihad\u2019 has been in process against the Hindus for the last many years. Now the\nabrogation of the Roshni Act has defeated the Muslims in that \u2018Jihad\u2019. In\nArabic language the word \u2018Jihad<\/em>\u2019\nstands for a war fought against the non-Muslims. They blame that as part of a\n\u2018calculated move\u2019 the Muslims purchase houses in Hindu-dominated colonies and\nconstruct mosques on government land in Jammu and Kashmir and use the name of\nthe Gujjars and the Bakarwals as the buyers. Now after abrogation of the Roshni\nAct they won\u2019t be able to do so. Before this the Hindu extremists have been\naccusing the Muslims of trapping and marrying the Hindu girls after\n\u2018apparently\u2019 falling in love with them. They say with particular reference to\nthe Jammu & Kashmir Valley that \u2018Land Jihad’ has replaced ‘Love Jihad’\nrhetoric in the Valley of Jammu & Kashmir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\non ground realities with reference to the relationship between the Hindus and\nthe Muslims living in the Jammu Kashmir Valley are altogether different. There\nis nothing like the \u2018love jihad\u2019 or the \u2018land-jihad\u2019 planned by the local\nMuslims against the other religious communities of the valley. Usually one\nfinds no differences and no clashes between the people belonging to the two\nreligious communities. The Aljazeera published an article in May 2018 which\nmust be no doubt an eye-opener to all those who propagate Hindu-Muslim\nconflicting relationship in the valley. Here is an extract from that article. Srinagar,\nIndian-administered Kashmir \u2013 Unaware of the tragedy that happened to his\nfamily, five-year-old Rohit Koul played in the courtyard while his three elder\nsiblings sat in a dimly lit room of their house in Lavdoora village, in south\nKashmir\u2019s Anantnag district. The children have not spoken much after their\nmother, Baby Koul, died three months ago due to chest disease. Nearly a year\nago, their father, Maharaj Krishan, also died a natural death. At a time of\nstrained Hindu-Muslim ties in India, this unity in a remote village in divided\nKashmir is exemplary.\u201d It is also a fact noteworthy that villagers of differing\nfaiths also attended Baby Koul\u2019s last rites according to the Hindu tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such\ntype of communal harmony is unfortunately neither appreciated nor encouraged by\nthe BJP extremists. They always keep on fanning the so-called differences\nbetween the Hindus and the Muslims. Things had never been as bad as they are\nnow in the Modi regime. In April 2017, the Pew Research Center in a study\nreport ranked India the fourth-worst country for religious intolerance out of\n198 nations. This September the ANI published a report bearing a statement of\nBhimla Pandita who lives in Pulwama district. She said, We don’t have any\nproblem here. All the communities treat each other with respect here, and there\nis a lot of brotherhood among people. If anybody needs help, people help them\nirrespective of religion.\u201d The same report referred to Tanvir Ahmad also who\nlives in Bhimla\u2019s neighborhood. Tanvir said talking to the ANI, I have always celebrated\nall the Hindu festivals with the same enthusiasm as the Islamic festivals. In\nour locality people of all religions live in harmony. I have always celebrated\nHoli and Diwali with as much enthusiasm as Eid.\u201d Same were the thoughts expressed\nby Akash, another resident of the same area. He said, I have lived whole of my\nlife in Kashmir and I have never faced any communal discrimination. There is a\nbrotherhood among people in Kashmir and everybody treats us with respect. I\nnever felt any inconveniences living in the state.\u201d If things are going all\nwell and the people of the Jammu-Kashmir Valley are having no trouble and\ninconvenience in living together; why Modi sarkar is eager and insistent on\nabrogation of different old laws in the valley; it is the most frequently asked\nquestion there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALI SUKHANVER The Indian government has recently abrogated the Jammu and Kashmir State Land Act, 2001 commonly known as Roshni Act. This Act was introduced in 2001 when Farooq Abdullah was the Chief Minister. The Act granted ownership of Jammu and Kashmir state land to the illegal-occupants upon payment of a sum to be determined […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ali-sukhanver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}