THE Filipino Indian Commerce & Welfare Society Inc. (FICWSI) celebrates today the second-year anniversary of the reorganization of India’s state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) as an independent union territory.
Majinder ‘James’ Kumar, president of FICWSI, credited the decisive leadership of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the breakthrough signing on August 5, 2019 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act.
Under the law, Jammu and Kashmir was reconstituted into a separate union territory alongside Ladakh. Both are part of the larger region of Kashmir, which has been the subject of a dispute between India, Pakistan and China since the mid-20th century.
The law revoked the special status of J&K and allowed the territory to be covered under India’s Constitution. It likewise saw the first unfurling of the national flag of India in all government buildings inside the territory, and the application of 890 central laws in J&K, the repeal of 2015 state laws and the modification and application of 130 state laws.
“The reorganization of Jammu and Kashmir and the implementation of India’s main laws and economic policy will not only bring development to the region but also a better quality of living to the people that really deserves it,” Kumar, a Filipino-Indian philanthropist, said.
Kumar, a recipient of the Philanthropist of the year from Asia Leaders Awards of 2020, said that the J&K law gave the territory’s people “rights to weaker sections or tribes” such as protection of their lands; “rights to children and senior citizens” such as education, and welfare programs; laws for good governance, laws for grassroots democracy and the creation of new land laws.
“The people of J&K are blessed with the swift and sincere action of Prime Minister Modi in protecting the people despite India being hit hard by COVID-19 and the new Delta variant. Here in the Philippines, we are one with the government in calling for cooperation and discipline in fighting this pandemic in order for us to go back to our normal lives,” Kumar also said.
The FICSWI is a non-government business organization composed of Indian businessmen who are involved in charitable activities and outreach programs in the Philippines. The group has been extending relief aids in the country during calamities through “Project Helpline.” It donated PPE gears to various hospitals and to the PNP last year at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
