New Delhi: In a major announcement which is likely to have massive repercussions for Jammu and Kashmir, Home Minister Amit Shah today announced in Rajya Sabha that the government has decided to repeal Article 370 of the Constitution which grants special status to J&K.
The government has also decided to bifurcate the state into two Union territories – Jammu and Kashmir, which will have a legislature, and Ladakh, which will be without a legislature.
After Home Minister Amit Shah moves resolution in Rajya Sabha that all clauses of Article 370 will not be applicable to Jammu and Kashmir, ruckus ensues in Rajya Sabha. Shah tells Rajya Sabha that the government will be introducing four Bills on Jammu and Kashmir at once.
Back in the Valley, three of Jammu and Kashmir’s most prominent politicians — Mehbooba Mufti, Omar Abdullah and Sajjad Lone are under house arrest amid a massive security-built up in the state. Internet services and mobile services have been suspended in several places and all public gatherings are banned in Srinagar district as section 144 was imposed from midnight.
What is Article 370
This Article specifies that except for Defence, Foreign Affairs, Communications and ancillary matters (matters specified in the Instrument of Accession), the Indian Parliament needs the state government’s concurrence for applying all other laws. Thus, the state’s residents lived under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to other Indians.
Similar protections for unique status exist in tribal areas of India, including those in Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Nagaland. However, it is only in the case of Jammu and Kashmir that the accession of the state to India is still a matter of dispute between India and Pakistan, still on the agenda of the UN Security Council and where the Government of India vide 1974 Indira-Sheikh accord committed itself to keeping the relationship between the Union and Jammu and Kashmir within the ambit of this Article.