New Delhi: Ghulam Nabi Azad, said that by revoking Article 370 that accords special status to Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP-led government has murdered the Consitution 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 says.
Meanwhile, the government continues to induct more troops into the Kashmir valley. 8,000 CRPF troops were airlifted from different parts of the country and moved into Kashmir. C-17s continue to bring in more troops in Srinagar. In the days before the announcement of Monday, the government had moved 35,000 additional troops to Jammu and Kashmir.
How will abrogation of Article 370 affect Jammu and Kashmir
“Such abrogation would revert the relationship between Jammu and Kashmir and India to the terms of the accession instrument and confine New Delhi’s jurisdiction to only matters of external affairs, communications and defence and ancillary matters, with the rest of the matters falling within the jurisdiction of the current constitutional polity of Jammu and Kashmir.”
In October 1947, the then-Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir signed the ‘Instrument of Accession’, which specified three subjects on which Jammu and Kashmir would transfer its powers to the government of India: 1. Foreign affairs, 2. Defence and 3. Communications. In March 1948, the Maharaja appointed an interim government in the state, with Sheikh Abdullah as the prime minister. In July 1949, Sheikh Abdullah and three other colleagues joined the Indian Constituent Assembly and negotiated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the adoption of Article 370.
Therefore, the Parliament needs the Jammu and Kashmir government’s nod for applying laws in the state — except defence, foreign affairs, finance, and communications.