An over-enthusiastic Dr Singh did clarify his statement later as he had directly brought Modi into it saying “discussion was already on with stakeholders” about abrogating the article. But knives were already out as the pro-India political parties in Jammu and Kashmir were up in arms threatening everything from agitation to even questioning the accession to Indian Union. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, whose National Conference tasted a humiliating defeat in the general elections was wary about the fate of the state’s connection with the rest of India. “Mark my words and save this tweet—Long after Modi Govt is a distant memory, either J&K wont be part of India or Article 370 will still exist,” he wrote on Twitter. His party has had a chance to come out of oblivion for the first time after the elections and took out a token protest rally outside its headquarters.
Similar was the response from opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Congress. Separatist parties in Kashmir initially maintained a distance from the issue but they soon realized that they were out of this discourse. Without knowing that they stand for something else and do not believe in Indian constitution or any of its provisions, they too jumped the gun to say that no one would be allowed to touch it. However, there are a few who believe that to kick-start a debate on Article 370 was an attempt to “divert the attention from the freedom struggle”. But the question is that Article 370 or a special position to Jammu and Kashmir state within the Indian Union becomes the base for any dispute vis a vis the state and that is why the right wing party like Bhartiya Janta Party, which now rules India with a comfortable majority wants to do away with it.
Kashmiris have been subjected to atrocities by rulers right since 1586 when it lost its sovereignty to Mughal Emperor Akbar. Since then, they have lived with a sense of disempowerment and always had the fear of getting ruined under a foreign invasion that would take a heavy toll on its cultural and linguistic identity. When Maharaja Hari Singh acceded to Indian in 1947 (with the support of Kashmir’s tallest leader Sheikh Abdullah) that was also in contrast with the mechanism that had been adopted for the division of India. In spite of being a Muslim majority state, it acceded to India and then this uniqueness was taken into consideration. Article 370 came into existence to give the feeling to the people that they were special and this wall was meant to protect their cultural and linguistic identity. Leading constitutional expert AG Noorani notes in his book ‘Article 370 – a Constitutional History of Jammu and Kashmir’ that Jammu and Kashmir was the only state that negotiated its relations with the Indian Union, unlike other states that merged with India.
It is a different matter that the rulers right from Jawahar Lal Nehru have not kept their promise of ensuring that this uniqueness would be preserved. Instead they worked towards its erosion and that is why an average Kashmiri lost faith in the Indian system and its democracy. One of the reasons for armed rebellion that has now been on for over 20 years was that Kashmiris felt cheated as the state initially acceded to the Union for three subjects only. Earlier, the promise of a plebiscite was also made by the first Indian Prime Minister in the United Nations.
Today the Article 370 is an empty shell but its significance as a psychological tool of being “different” remains there. The first blow to the trust and confidence of people came in August 1953 when the then Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was illegally dismissed. That was done to pave way for the erosion of the so-called autonomy the state was enjoying under Article 370. Post 1953, Government of India clandestinely extended 262 articles out of 396 articles of Indian constitution to the state. Out of 94 entrees in the union list, 94 apply to the state and interestingly one is related to Navy when you do not have anything associated that in the state. GOI also extended Article 249 under which Parliament can make laws on any item, which falls, in the state list that too in normal times. And that was done during Governor’s Rule in the state. All this was done in violation of Article 370 and the interim powers given to parliament are still used when they ceased to exist when Jammu and Kashmir’s Constituent Assembly completed its task of adopting the constitution in 1956.
This is not for the first time that BJP has raked up the issue. It has been on its manifesto for long time. But when it was in power with AB Vajpayee as Prime Minister, the course was changed towards peace and reconciliation by recognizing the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir. That is how serious engagement with both Islamabad and Srinagar became the hallmark of Vajpayee’s initiatives. Whether Modi can tread on a dangerous path towards the abrogation of Article 370 is a different issue but it came at a time when he reached out to Pakistan and invited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to his swearing in ceremony. Was it a planned move to do hard talk on Article 370 and send “positive” signals to Islamabad something like a carrot and stick policy remains to be seen. But the fact is that to even touch this article would open a Pandora’s Box on the question of accession and rest on the issue of Kashmir.
The author is a journalist in Srinagar, and the editor of English daily Rising Kashmir