The story so far: Amid uncertainty over a long-pending Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir and while the Supreme Court examines the abrogation of Article 370, the Centre has tabled a Bill to reserve three seats in the Legislative Assembly for Kashmiri migrants and representatives of people displaced from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK).
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 26, seeks to amend the 2019 Act, which reorganised the erstwhile State to bifurcate it into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. While Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai has claimed that the government’s intention behind the Bill is to “preserve political rights” and “overall social and economic development” of the communities, regional voices have expressed concerns over the nomination process. Some have also objected to the language of the Bill which has referred to the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from the Valley during militancy in 1989-90 as “migration.”
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