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Revoking Article 370- A Populist Gimmick & Its Consequences

Revoking Article 370- A Populist Gimmick & Its Consequences
By Jaydeep Findoria

The remarkable and prominent personality, former President of India Pranab Mukherjee says, ‘Let Jammu and Kashmir lead the way in the building of a new future for India. Let it set an example to the rest of India and the world by showing how the entire region can be transformed into a zone of peace, stability and prosperity.’ Now the question arises could we do so by snatching the unique identity of a particular state which is given to it in order to be safeguarded from several discriminations?

Let’s begin from the past as history rings with true facts and teaches us great lessons. In 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh signed ‘Instrument of Accession’  in order to join the Dominion of India with surrendering three strong and sensitive subject matters, which were defense, external affairs and communications to the Indian State. But the condition kept was Jammu & Kashmir would be having their own constituent assembly which would draft their own constitution . From time being the constituent assembly collapsed in 1957 which became a hurdle for government to eradicate this temporary provision as mentioned in first Presidential order by Dr Rajendra Prasad . Now till the actions of government in 2019 almost after 70 years post-independence, the major focus had been captured by the emerging rights of all the Kashmiris and enlightening of the long list of special provisions provided to the people of Jammu and Kashmir under their self-owned constitution. Now when we glance at the aftermath of abrogation of this article and further bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir  into two different union territories, snatching of special status might be considered as milestone but looking at both the sides of real tale it results in various consequences when looked upon ground reality faced by the people of Jammu & Kashmir.

Focusing on social havocs faced by the nation after the drastic step taken by the government on 5th August 2019, media that are the ultimate connecting pin between public and government were unable to update the e-papers on their respective websites. The newspaper publishing firms faced internet shutdown very abruptly. Various reporters were facing inadequacies in getting entry to the places surrounded by securities. Some barriers over the land of Kashmir in order to control the movements of protestors resulted in disastrous conditions regardless of thinking that the opposing people too have right to freedom of speech and expression . The students of the state were getting adversely affected due restrictions on educational facilities and financial shortage. The security agencies of the government imprisoned 500 people including prominent political personalities and activities which were ultimately harming the right to live life with dignity  on the wider picture. A reign of tension revolved among the families to shutting down of all the landlines and telephonic networking. Some people consider it as threat to their identity and culture which brought out their protesting nature. It also created exploding and impulsive altercation between Pakistan and India where direct military confrontation was the spiked tension. 

Now when we focus on the ground reality that how it is connected to that of welfare of people of Jammu and Kashmir then the question arises whether Kashmiris were consulted before taking any of the drastic movement. It has also been argued that the step is unconstitutional as Presidential Order mentioned that this temporary provision could only be removed in consultancy with Constituent Assembly but this provision became loophole due to collapsing of the assembly. Many scholars and political theorists argued that there were no proper debates and discussions made before taking major steps from armed forces power  in Kashmir to new presidential order . People also argued that whether this step prove the grounds of validity as Jammu and Kashmir has to be further bifurcate into union territories then why not bifurcating into full statehood region regardless of all the constraints which harm the security and integrity of the state. 

Eradication of terrorism and enhancement of development were said to be the two major reasons for abrogation of Article 370 and 35(A) but neither terrorism stopped nor the development steps initiated. In nutshell it could be marked as populist gimmick as instead of welfare and development schemes, it has drawn the attention towards various protests and questionings on validity and constitutionality of revocation. As quoted by senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, the will of the people finds no expression in the concurrence of the government of the state. He further added that the strength of sovereignty lies with the people and the recommendation made by Parliament on behalf of the Constituent Assembly of the state is undemocratic not only for want of will of the people of the state but also undemocratic for want of public reason.
Henceforth, all these consequences highlight that in spite of so many discussions aftermath the revocation and bifurcation, it has somewhere violated the principle of deliberative democracy. Enlightening the quote by Jan Morris, ‘Kashmir has always been more than a mere place. It has the quality of an experience, or a state of mind, or perhaps an ideal’, whether the government has actually propagated the way of peace for Jammu and Kashmir is still a question because development could not be done on the verge of extinction of humans, enhancement could not be done on the verge of violation of fundamental rights and power could not be exercised on the verge of violation of democracy in a country where views and perspectives of each and everyone are given equal importance and equal attention. 

References-

1.‘Instrument of Accession’ with reference to Indian Independence Act 1947
2. Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir 1956
3. Presidential Order 1954, Article 35(A)
4. Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill 2019
5. Article 19 (1)(A) – Constitution of India 1949
6. Article 21- Constitution of India 1949
7. Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 – Reference to ‘The Disturbed Areas Act 1976’
8. Presidential Order 2019- In accordance to replace ‘Presidential Order 1954’