Srinagar: Stating that any move by BJP on repealing of Jammu and Kashmirs special status will open a Pandoras box, one of the interlocutors on Kashmir Dileep Padgaonkar has said that the step will give a fillip to secessionist forces in the Valley, increase Pakistan-supported militant activities and, no less serious, internationalize the Kashmir issue.
Dileep Padgaonkar opined that there are constitutional hurdles that the new government will also have to cross should it move to abrogate Article 370.
A new constituent assembly will have to be formed to recommend the abrogation. (Given the majority of disaffected Kashmiri Muslims such an assembly will have, no such recommendation will be forthcoming.Only then can the President of India issue a public notification to this effect. Parliament is well within its rights to amend this provision. But what if the Supreme Court rules that the special status accorded to J&K is a basic feature of the Constitution, remarked Padgaonkar.
He maintained further that at its genesis, Article 370 gave the Union government jurisdiction over three subjectsdefence, foreign policy and communications. But this is what has come to pass over the decades: 94 of the 97 entries in the Union list and 26 of the 47 entries in the concurrent list were extended to J&K. So were 260 of the 395 Articles of the Indian Constitution. Subsequent presidential orders further eroded the original substance of the Article.
He remarked that Jammu and Ladakh favour closer integration with the rest of India, the focus in the Valley was on the mindless application of harsh laws, failure to observe due process in the case of jailed militants and unwillingness to bring the perpetrators of human rights violations to book.
Again and again, the interlocutors were reminded about the appointment and dismissals of chief ministers in the past, about rigged elections, about New Delhi turning a blind eye to institutional corruption and, especially, about the erosion of Article 370, the former interlocutor on Kashmir said. (KNS)
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