Non-Kashmiris are banned from buying property in the scenic Himalayan region, but supporters of restricting women’s residency status say the age-old law is circumvented through marriages of convenience.
The bill passed unanimously in March in the state assembly’s 87-member lower house with support of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its alliance partner Congress.
But the bill caused an uproar in India, particularly among women’s groups, in the run-up to national elections which were won by a Congress-led coalition.
Both the PDP and Congress are withholding their crucial support in the upper house, preventing the bill from becoming law.
Kashmir’s main opposition National Conference party, which supports the bill, Thursday blocked proceedings of both houses by chanting slogans such as “The Kashmir we have nourished with blood is ours.”
National Conference legislative chief Abdul Rahim Rather accused the government of sabotaging the bill at the behest of “people in New Delhi.”
“Those who don’t want to pass the bill will be helping the forces hellbent on diluting the special status of Kashmir within India,” Rather said.
The bill has exposed religious differences in Kashmir as residents of the Muslim-majority valley around the summer capital Srinagar rarely marry people from outside the state.
But Hindus, who form about one-third of the state’s population and are concentrated in the southern Jammu region, frequently find spouses from elsewhere in India.
Kashmir is in the grip of an Islamic insurgency against Indian rule that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1989.
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