India scraps special status for Kashmir
The Indian government on Monday revoked Kashmir’s special status, stripping the significant autonomy it has enjoyed for seven decades in a move expected to further inflame tensions in the Muslim-majority region and infuriate neighbour Pakistan.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi Hindunationalist party rushed through a presidential decree to scrap the disputed region’s special status in the constitution, and also moved a bill proposing the territory be divided into two regions directly ruled by New Delhi.
The government imposed a security lockdown and cut all telecommunications in the Indianadministered part of Kashmir in the early hours of Monday ater deploying tens of thousands of troops in the past week, claiming there was a terror threat.
Home Minister Amit Shah, a close ally of Modi, told parliament the president had issued a decree abolishing Article 370 of the constitution, which gives special autonomy to the Himalayan region.
The decree said the measure came into force “at once.”
“The entire constitution will be applicable to Jammu and Kashmir,” Shah told parliament, as opposition lawmakers voiced loud protests against the repeal.
Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-general Antonio Guterres urged India and Pakistan to exercise restraint, his spokesman said on Monday.
“We urge all parties to exercise restraint,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters, adding that UN peacekeepers observing a ceasefire between India and Pakistan in the state of Jammu and Kashmir “has observed and reported an increase in military activity along the line of control.”
Pakistan said it strongly condemned the decision, which is bound to further strain ties between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said the move “was in clear violation of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions” in the region, according to a statement released ater a telephone call with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Monday evening.
“As the party to this international dispute, Pakistan will exercise all possible options to counter the illegal steps,” its foreign ministry said in a statement.
Pakistan’s parliament and top military commanders separately meet on Tuesday to ponder over the situation arising out of Indian decision revoking the special constitutional status of Kashmir through a presidential order.
The new Union Territories that came into existence with Monday’s Presidential ordinance are Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Ladakh. Both will be under a Lieutenant Governor but J&K will have an elected Legislative Assembly while Ladakh will not have.
The Presidential order said it will come into effect immediately and it will “supersede” the earlier presidential order issued in 1954, under which Article 35A was inserted. Article 35A laid down special rights and privileges to the natives of Kashmir in employment, education, setlement etc., and empowered its legislature to frame any law without atracting a challenge on grounds of violating right to equality of people from other states or any other right under the Indian Constitution.
Foreign ministry officials later briefed envoys of several countries on the changes to the state’s administrative status, saying they were aimed at promoting good governance, social justice and economic development.
The government also lited a ban on property purchases by non-residents, opening the way for Indians to invest and setle there, just as they can elsewhere in India. The measure is likely to provoke a backlash in the region.
Hours earlier the Indian government launched a security crackdown in the region, arresting local leaders, suspending telephone and internet services and restricting public movement in the main city of Srinagar.
Local TV channels citing Press Trust of India reported that former Kashmiri chief ministers Mehbooba Muti and Omar Abdullah had been detained at a state guest house.
Regional leaders have previously said stripping Kashmir’s special status amounts to aggression against its people.
Srinagar’s streets were largely deserted as travel curbs kept people indoors, said a Reuters photographer who found a telephone connection in a restaurant near the city’s airport.
Delhi also revokes property rights enjoyed by Kashmiris; security crackdown as phone lines, Internet blocked; UN chief urges restraint; Pak rejects move, says will exercise all options.