The abrogation of special status of the state of J&K will help end violence and militancy in the state and enable people to access government schemes. Many eminent journalists and constitutional experts deem the abrogation as the integration of Kashmir with India in the best interest of Kashmiri people.
Article 370 of the Constitution of India was a temporary provision included on 17 Oct 1949 providing special powers and a separate constitution to the state of J&K. Accordingly, only Articles 1 and 370 of the Indian Constitution were applicable to J&K Article 35A of the Indian Constitution was introduced through a constitutional order in 1954 and authorized the J&K state legislature to define the term ‘permanent residents’ for entitling property rights, employment, scholarships, fundamental rights and other social benefits in the state. These special provisions also provided J&K a state flag and complete autonomy over the internal state administration. On 5th Aug 2021, the Parliament of India, via a series of resolutions passed in both houses of the Parliament, revoked the temporary special status granted to J&K under the preceding Articles, overriding the prevailing 1954 Presidential Order. The Union Home Minister introduced a Reorganization Bill which divided the state into two UTs – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Under the garb of autonomy, terror activities within the state saw a steady rise since 2016 killing of the terrorist Burhan Wani. Unhindered communication facilities and access to special powers to the residents enable the political unrest to rise. Abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A seeks to enable people of J&K and Ladakh to access govt. programmes such as reservation, right to education and right to information.
Data provided by the Home Ministry shows that terror related incidents have reduced drastically since the revocation of Article 370. Compared to 2019, number of terror incidents have seen a sharp decline to just 59% in 2020. The incidents further reduced by 32% till June 2021 compared to the year 2020 during the same period There has been a rise in political activity in the J&K UT over the last year as many political leaders from parties like NC, PDP, CPI, CPM and some local parties came together to form the Gupkar Alliance with the objective to restore the special status of the state. The alliance contested the District Development Council (DDC) elections in Dec 2020 and emerged victorious in the Kashmir Valley. PM of India has held meetings with the top former leaders of the erstwhile state to discuss the way forward. He said that state elections will be held post the delimitation exercise.
As per a 1990 report, around 44,167 Kashmiri migrant families fled Kashmir since 1990`s due to security concerns. In 2021, the govt. said that 3,841 of these migrants returned back to Kashmir and have taken up govt. jobs in various districts in the valley under the PM`s rehabilitation package A total number of 456 MoUs totaling 23,152 crore have been signed with potential investors. All flagship schemes of the govt including individual beneficiary schemes have been implemented in the UT. Centre has approved an Industrial Development Scheme for the UT with a capital outlay of 28,400cr to boost the industrial production The govt. has started issuing domicile certificates to men who are from outside the UT but married to local women. This will allow them to buy land/ property in the UT and apply for govt jobs. Till Jan 2021, a total of 33,80,234 such certificates have been issued.
The Jammu and Kashmir cadre for All-India services like IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service were merged with the existing cadre of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and other UTs (AGMUT). The decision seeks to reduce the shortage of All-India service officers in J&K owing to the earlier ratio of 50:50 between the direct recruits in civil services to promotes from J&K state civil services (Kashmir Administrative Services) to 67:33 being followed in other states. Hence, now any officer belonging to the AGMUT cadre is eligible to be posted in the UT of J&K and the UT of Ladakh, and vice-versa.
The special status allowed J&K to have its own flag and a constitution which determined what portions of the Indian Constitution was applicable in the erstwhile state. It had its own penal code, called the Ranbir Penal Code. After the special status was a removed, government office including the civil secretariat host only the national tricolor. The Criminal Investigation Department of the Jammu and Kashmir Police issued an order in July 2021 asking its local units to specifically look for a person's involvement in cases of stone pelting among other crimes during verification related to passport services. The order translates into denial of security clearance for passport and other government services to those involved in stone pelting or subversive activities.
The abrogation of special status of the state of J&K will help end violence and militancy in the state and enable people to access government schemes. Many eminent journalists and constitutional experts deem the abrogation as the integration of Kashmir with India in the best interest of Kashmiri people. Article 370 and 35A had caused social, economic and political injustice in Jammu and Kashmir, and the people will now get the long-pending benefit that was denied to them.
Most importantly, Indian government's measures will lead to the betterment of people in Jammu and Kashmir, and defer the nefarious plans of Pakistan using extremist violence as an instrument of policy to create instability in the sovereign land of the Indian sub-continent.
Comments