Home Affairs Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday assured the people of Jammu and Kashmir that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre would not do anything to change the status quo of Article 35A. The constitutional provision gives the state legislature the power to define who can be regarded as permanent residents of the Valley and grant special privileges to such individuals.

“I assure you that the government will never never take a step that will hurt the sentiments of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” Singh said, after a meeting with a delegation from the ruling People’s Democratic Party, with which the BJP is in alliance in the state, and state Opposition, the National Conference.

Article 35A bars citizens from other parts of the country from acquiring immovable property in the state, taking up jobs with the state government, availing state-sponsored scholarships, or settling permanently anywhere in the Valley.

A Delhi-based NGO, We The Citizens, had filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2014, demanding that Article 35A be repealed because of its “unconstitutional character”. During a hearing on July 17, the Centre had sought a larger debate on the matter.

National Conference leader and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the party had made its stance clear on the matter. “We put our point of view in front of the home minister and informed him of the importance the people of the state attach to this provision,” Abdullah said.

Congress leader GN Monga led his party’s delegation to the meeting in Srinagar, where they demanded including the Hurriyat in talks about the state’s future as they were stakeholders, as well. “The Centre’s policy in Jammu and Kashmir over the past two to three years has failed, and there is more anger on the ground now than before,” Monga said, according to The Indian Express.