Union Home Minister Amit Shah has proposed in Rajya Sabha to repeal Article 370 from the Constitution. The article 370 gives special status to the state of J&K. However, his move has been highly opposed by the opposition political party leaders present in the Rajya Sabha.
Article 370
Article 370 exempts J&K from the Indian Constitution and gives the state a special status of developing its own constitution. This has been in force since 17th October 1949. The article disallows Parliament to have any legislative power of Jammu & Kashmir.
BJP has been proposing to repeal Article 370 for a long time now. They had claimed it earlier as well to repeal the same from Constitution during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government. However, the desired output could not be achieved during that time due to lack of majority in Parliamentary houses.
Situations in Kashmir
The tensions in the valley started increasing when the Central Government had sent around 25000 CRPF soldiers in the state, last week. It was being stated that there is a probable threat of terrorist activities in the Kashmir Valley. On the night of 4th August, Sunday, the news came that Section 144 has been imposed in the state. The states political leaders have been put under house arrest. A large number of central reserve police officials (CRPF) and soldiers are guarding the house of Omar Abdullah & Farooq Abdullah (National Conference Leader), Mehbooba Mufti (Peoples Democratic Party Chief) and Sajad Lone (Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference chairman) as a procedure of keeping peaceful situations in the state. Everything including communication and internet facilities has been turned down around their facilities.
After Article 370 was scrapped by the home minister. Around 8000 troops were airlifted from UP, Assam, Odisha and other parts of India to be put on to service in the Kashmir Valley. It is official now, Jammu and Kashmir is now an Undisputed part of India.
However, the only people right now, who seem to be unhappy with this decision, are the aforesaid leaders of J&K. Further, the NC leader Omar Abdullah had also issued an official statement in which he has shown disappointment with the decision stating that the state and it’s people have been created because the Government of India had promised that there will be no major changes in the state legislature specifically in terms of Article 35A & Article 370. He further stated that the consequences will be disastrous as this will revoke the special rights of the people of the state.
Omar Abdullah’s Statement:
What will follow?
The state of Jammu & Kashmir had its own assembly which was powered by its own constitution. However, withdrawal of Article 370 from the Indian Constitution invalidated the existence of J&K’s constitution. Therefore, after the scrapping of Article 370, J&K does not have any legislative assembly of its own. And now onwards, the two houses of parliament will have administration and legislature in the state, making it a Union Territory.
The state of Jammu & Kashmir will be divided into parts making Jammu & Kashmir as a Union Territory and Ladakh as a separate state.
However, the big questions that lie ahead of us are what will be the consequences when a 70-year-old administrative power has been scrapped. Share your views on this with us in the comment section.
