New Delhi: Article 370, which confers special status to Jammu and Kashmir, will be removed, said Home Minister Amit Shah in parliament, on Monday, August 5. The announcement came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting of his cabinet at his house this morning.
Making a historic announcement in the Rajya Sabha that triggered bedlam, Shah said: “I am presenting the resolution to revoke Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir except the first clause 370 (1).”
Jammu and Kashmir will also be “reorganised,” said the Home Minister. Though not clear, many say that the talks are building up to trifurcated the region into three distinct areas – Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. Meanwhile, it is also said that the government plans to bifurcate the region- with J&K as one union territory with the legislature and Ladakh as a union territory without legislature.
Article 370 doesn’t link India with J&K
“Opposition leaders are saying that Article 370 brought Jammu and Kashmir to India. But the fact is that the Maharaja Hari Singh signed on October 27, 1947 (the Instrument of Accession) while Article 370 came into existence in 1949. So this is wrong to say that Article 370 brought Jammu and Kashmir with India,” the Minister told the Rajya Sabha in response to Congress leader and former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad who condemned the government decision to axe Article 370.
Leader of Opposition Azad said: “By revoking Article 370 that accords special status to Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP government has murdered the Constitution of India.
“We stand by the Constitution of India… We are willing to give up our lives for the Constitution, but we condemn any act against the Constitution,” he said and underlined that it was the historic Article 370 which linked Jammu and Kashmir to India.
His remarks came after Shah moved a resolution in the Rajya Sabha scrapping Article 370 will not be applicable to Jammu and Kashmir any more. Shah said Article 370 was used as “vote bank politics” and the earlier governments lacked the political will to revoke it. “But the Modi government has the political will and we are not bothered about vote bank politics.” He asked the opposition members to have a debate on the resolution and said there should not be a delay “even one second” in revoking Article 370.
Included in the Constitution on October 17, 1949, Article 370 exempts J&K from the Indian Constitution (except Article 1 and Article 370 itself) and permits the state to draft its own Constitution. It restricts Parliament’s legislative powers in respect of Jammu and Kashmir. Article 35A stems from Article 370, having been introduced through a Presidential Order in 1954. Article 35A empowers the J&K legislature to define the state’s permanent residents and their special rights and privileges.
