It is a national tragedy that it has taken 72 long years to fully and firmly integrate Jammu and Kashmir with India. It is a national tragedy that when this NDA government led by PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah decided to take the bull by the horns and carry out the most daring step since independence to protect our supreme national interests which we all must welcome and extend our unstinted support still we see that many leaders for furthering their own vested interests are opposing it tooth and nail even though leaders even from their own party are terming it as a daring move as we see in the case of former Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, senior Congress leader and also an eminent and senior Supreme Court lawyer who has hailed this bold move as “a daring resolve in line with the mood of the nation”. How can anyone ignore when such an eminent senior lawyer of Supreme Court and former Union Law Minister who hails not from ruling party BJP or its ally party but from the main opposition party which is the Congress says so openly with full confidence?
It is reliably learnt from many news channels that even another eminent and most experienced senior lawyer of Supreme Court who has also served earlier as Additional Solicitor General and is also a senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi has also expressed his support to this bold decision taken by Centre! Salman Khurshid too has hailed it and has rightly questioned that who is Pakistan to meddle in our internal matters? Did Pakistani leaders write our Constitution? Were our leaders totally incapable? Certainly not! Then who is Pakistan to shout and scream? No one! They should mind their own business jolly well and concentrate on addressing the endless woes of the people living there who are resenting their brutal suppression by armed forces and not giving them any basic rights!
To be sure, Ashwani Kumar further reiterated that, “The J&K gamble by the Central government has received popular national support and seems to be consistent with the national mood although history and future alone can attest to its wisdom.” He also clarified that he can’t work by diktat! Very rightly so! It gives immense satisfaction to note that so many Congress leaders have openly come out in the open to support Centre's bold and historic move!
As things stand, Congress senior leader Janardhan Dwivedi said happily that, “It is a very old issue. After Independence, many freedom fighters did not want Article 370 to remain. I had my political training under Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, who was against this Article. Personally, this is an issue of a matter of satisfaction for the nation. This historical mistake that happened at the time of independence has been rectified today, even though late, and is welcomed.” Mumbai Congress Chief – Milind Deora said that it was “very unfortunate” that Article 370 was being converted into a “liberal vs conservative debate”. He said in a tweet that, “Parties should put aside ideological fixations & debate what’s best for India’s sovereignty and federalism, peace in J&K, jobs for Kashmiri youth and justice for Kashmiri Pandits.”
Interestingly enough, even veteran Congress leader Karan Singh who is son of J&K’s last ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh who signed the Instrument of Accession in 1947 and who was a Union Minister in the Indira Gandhi Cabinet in 1967, has been a member of CWC and worked with four generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family took a divergent stand from that of his party and said that he did not agree with a “blanket condemnation” of the government’s decision and said that it has “several positive points”. He welcomed the government’s decision to make Ladakh a Union Territory and reminded that, “In fact, I had suggested this as far back as 1965, when I was still Sadr-i-Riyasat of J&K, when I had publically proposed reorganisation of the state.” He said that he hoped the hill councils of Leh and Kargil would “continue to function, so that in the absence of the Legislature, the grassroots opinion of the people of Ladakh are duly represented.” He minced no words to reiterate his support to scrap Article 35A and the government’s plan to initiate an exercise to redraw the contours of the Assembly constituencies. He said that, “The gender discrimination in Article 35A needed to be addressed as also the long-awaited and enfranchisement of lakhs of West Pakistan’s refugees and reservations for Scheduled Tribes which will be welcomed. There will also be a fresh delimitation which, for the first time, will ensure a division of political power between the Jammu and Kashmir regions.”
More pertinently, how can it be overlooked what Jawaharlal Nehru had himself said in Parliament that, “Article 370, as the House will remember, is a part of certain transitional, provisional arrangements. It is not a permanent part of the Constitution. It is a part so long as it remains so. As a matter of fact, as the HM has pointed out, it has been eroded…I repeat that it is fully integrated…So we feel that this process of gradual erosion of Article 370 is going on. We should allow it to go on. That process is continuing.” He had said most unequivocally that Article 370, a temporary and transient provision will “corrode and erode itself”. Can anyone deny this also? Article 370 which was introduced into the draft Constitution by N Gopalaswami Ayyangar as Article 306A and when he proposed that Kashmir state would have special status and would be excluded from the purview of the laws that the Parliament of India would make and also would have the power to make its own laws, this was strongly objected to by Maulana Hasrat Mohani who was the member from United Provinces who asked that, “Why this discrimination?” Even Dr BR Amendkar who drafted the Constitution was not in favour of it!
For the sake of brevity, Rakesh Dwivedi who is a senior advocate in athe Supreme Court sums up by saying that, “Along with bifurcation of J&K into two UTs under Article 1 of the Constitution, central control over J&K would be complete. Parliament would get power to legislate over all matters subject to the legislative powers left to J&K legislature – somewhat akin to Delhi. People of India would be able to exercise their fundamental rights in Part 3 of the Constitution in J&K also. With the concept of state subject coming to an end, the people of J&K and rest of India stand at par. This should foster equality and fraternity. This should foster equality and fraternity. We expect this political process to stabilize J&K, consolidate Ladakh and eventually lead to development of J&K. This would eliminate vested interests who were exploiting J&K unrest even while encouraging terrorists and separatists. J&K occupies a sensitive position as it is contagious to China, Afghanistan, Russia and Pakistan. With withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan being worked out, the Modi government has acted with promptitude to consolidate and strengthen the Indian position in J&K.”
Needless to say, former Union Law Minister, Finance Minister and also Defence Minister who earlier was also a senior Supreme Court lawyer Arun Jaitley very rightly said that, “The government’s move on Article 370 is a monumental decision towards national integration.” The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill of 2019 passed recently by both Houses of Parliament will certainly usher in revolutionary changes! President Ram Nath Kovind on August 9, 2019 gave assent to a legislation for bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh and it will come into existence on October 31. A Home Ministry notification said that, “In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (a) of Section 2 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 (34 of 2019), the central government hereby appoints the 31st day of October, 2019 as the appointed day for the purposes of the said Act.” What a tragedy that those who are now opposing removal of Article 370 forget conveniently that on September 12, 1964, it was reported that a Bill in the Lok Sabha urged that Article 370 be done away with in the interest of complete integration of the state with the rest of the country!
Be it noted, Union Home Minister Amit Shah who tabled the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019 and the statutory resolutions in Rajya Sabha around 11 am after the Union cabinet met at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence at 9.30 am to grant the go-ahead said that, “Article 370 was a temporary provision…how long can a temporary provision be allowed to continue…After abrogation of Article 370, Jammu and Kashmir will truly become an integral part of India.” Saying Article 370 was at the root of terrorism, Amit Shah told the House that full state status will be restored to Jammu and Kashmir at an appropriate time when normalcy returns. He rightly said that the decision to do away with the special status of J&K and to bifurcate the state into two UTs was in the supreme national interest! No denying it!
As it turned out, Amit Shah rose to place four matters before the Rajya Sabha which are as follows:-
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