Centre must tread warily on Kashmir

WITH THE SEPARATISTS unmasked by revelations of funding received by them from across the border and media exposes on the huge wealth most Hurriyat leaders amassed while paying mere lip service to the cause of the Kashmiri people, gradually the tide is tur

The BJP is on the horns of a dilemma on the issue of abrogating Article 370 which confers special status on Jammu and Kashmir. On the one hand it is conscious that in its election manifesto before it stormed to power at the Centre in 2014, as on many other occasions earlier, it had promised to scrap this provision, on the other, it is beset by biting opposition to it by self-serving politicians of all hues and a section of intellectuals.

On the one hand there is a legitimate desire to show to the world that Kashmir is like any other state of India, an inalienable part of this country, physically and emotionally linked in letter and spirit. On the other, there is this ‘special status’ which holds out like a sore thumb reminding the world that it was the object of a dispute.

There is no doubt that the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had erred gravely in agreeing to this special status and in even promising a plebiscite for which there remained little justification when Pakistan repudiated the conditions set for it by the United Nations, but the situation in Kashmir today is so volatile that any false move could unleash a bloodbath. Not only would Pakistan love to fish in troubled waters to queer the pitch for India in Kashmir but our own traitor-separatists would treat that as a great opportunity to incite a widespread revolt.

True that the special status was to be ‘temporary’ and that the case for abrogating it is based on strong grounds, but Kashmir today is on the edge and this is not the appropriate time for such a move. The Congress party is in a mode where it puts party interest above national interest and opportunism rules the day.

What has added fuel to the fire is the stand of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti who has gone on record to say that if special status was tinkered with, there will be no one in Kashmir to hold aloft the tricolour. Such a no-holds-barred threat could not but irritate the BJP top leadership no end but the party is restraining itself.

Fighting for relevance in a scenario in which she is seen to be neither here nor there, she told the State Assembly recently: “If we injured the spirit of Article 370, there won’t be bigger antinational work than this. Those people, who are trying to do that, are the biggest anti-nationals and we shall fight them.”

With the separatists unmasked by revelations of funding received by them from across the border and media exposes on the huge wealth most Hurriyat leaders have amassed while paying mere lip service to the cause of the Kashmiri people, gradually the tide is turning in Kashmir.

This could well be reversed if the Centre commits the folly of serving to the people an issue to fight for, shoulder to shoulder with the separatists, who are deep-rooted in their vested interests to create disharmony and disorder in the Valley.

Some hawks may say that this is the appropriate time for scrapping Article 370 since the BJP is riding high in the country, the army’s campaign to rid the valley of terrorists is yielding results and the world community is seeing merit in India’s position on Kashmir. But that is only half the truth. The other half is the sinister designs of Pakistan in collusion with China and with the separatists and perpetrators of terror in Kashmir.

This is not to say that the time for abrogating Article 370 would never come. It will but we need to prepare the ground for it for a longer time with unstinted tact and greater wisdom. Politically, the BJP is isolated on repealing the controversial provision. Apart from Mehbooba Mufti, both former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his father Dr. Farooq Abdullah have opposed any such move besides the Congress questioning it with characteristic guile and opportunism.

Article 370 specifies that except for Defence, Foreign Affairs, Communications and ancilliary 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 live under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to other Indians.

While opposition within Kashmir is certainly a deterring factor for abrogating Article 370, there is also a school of thought that says that abrogating the provision would put the accession of the state to India in jeopardy. This is because the nature of the accession of J&K into the Union of India is totally different from the merger of all other small and big states. Moreover, there is a debate over whether Article 370 is a part of the basic structure of the Constitution and whether it can be amended.

In effect, the integration of the State with the rest of the country has been a natural process in regard to most spheres. The only substantial differences from many other States relate to permanent residents and their rights; the non-applicability of Emergency provisions on the grounds of "internal disturbance" without the concurrence of the State; and the name and boundaries of the State, which cannot be altered without the consent of its legislature.

Prudence indeed demands that the special status of Jammu and Kashmir be maintained for now. But it is incumbent on the government that those Kashmiri Hindus who were displaced at the height of insurgency be given the land and protection to return to Kashmir in all fairness.