The separatists are again pitching to shatter peace in Kashmir on the issue of the controversial Article 35A by threatening that “people will hit the streets” if any attempt was made to abolish the state subject law that debars rest of Indians to own property in Jammu and Kashmir.

Their anxiety is in context with the further hearing of the petition against the constitutional provision by a 3-member bench of the Supreme Court on 6 August.

While the valley based separatists and Kashmir-centric political parties are opposing any “tinkering” with the state subject law, people in the Jammu and the Ladakh regions want the provision to be scrapped so that the turmoiled state joins the mainstream with the rest of the country. Majority people in the two regions say that the Articles 35A and 370 smack of separatism and these should be repealed without further delay.

Separatist Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, while delivering sermons during the Friday prayers in the Srinagar’s Jama Masjid, warned: “Kashmiris will not take machinations against them lying low and will oppose them tooth and nail. People will hit the streets and resist it forcefully.”

He threatened that the “BJP and RSS plan of changing the demographic nature of J-K by doing away with the state subject law and flooding it with people from outside and changing Kashmir’s disputed status will never be allowed”.

However, the separatists and the valley based parties do not support the concerns of demographic change raised by residents of the Jammu region on the issue of the Bangladesh and Rohingya nationals being allowed to illegally settle in various areas of Jammu.

Instead of waiting for a verdict of the court, the separatists, by inciting people on the issue that was sub-judice, were now trying to again break the peace that has started returning to the valley after ouster of the PDP-BJP government and imposition of the Governor’s rule.

What is being keenly watched by people of the two other regions is the dithering stand of the ruling BJP at the Centre that had in the previous polls made abolition of the Articles 370 and 35A their election plank. However, the party had put these issues on the backburner in a bid to share power with Mufti Sayeed and after his death with Mehbooba Mufti.

The 3-member bench headed by Chief Justice Deepak Misra had on 14 May deferred hearing on petitions challenging the Article 35A that gives special rights and privileges to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir after the Attorney General KK Venugopal sought an adjournment.

Several persons and NGOs have challenged the Article 35A on the ground that the President could not have amended the Constitution by an Order in 1954 and it was to be a temporary provision.