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| Article 370: The illegitimate child! | | | This article which
contains provi
sion for Jammu & Kashmir was added temporarily by the constituent assembly of India. It was inserted to provide a special status to Jammu & Kashmir by which it has a separate state and separate laws for itself. It was supposed to be removed in some period of time but as a matter of grave disquietude for us inhabitants it continues to exist even today.
To visit this issue which is a matter of concern and publicity to half of the earth's population, let us go back in flashback. This problem had started way back in 1940s. Kashmir has always been a centre of attraction for anyone who ruled New Delhi, be it the tyrant Mughal invaders or the great Sikh rulers such as Ranjit Singh. But the British were pragmatic enough to ignore this part of India which, prior to them had been a centre of leisure and rake for voluptuary invaders of India.
The problem of Kashmir is not new born but a chronic one which has perpetually perturbed Delhi. Kashmir having a very disturbing past has never been ruled either by a worthy king in earlier times or by an able democrat in recent times. After the coup of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was arranged by Britishers in collusion with a chap who was just a running footman in former's court prior to getting exalted as one of the trusted lieutenants of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Kashmir is said to be bought by him for a certain monetary considerations, in that case Gulab Singh was not a king but a vassal.
Kashmir has been attacked a lot of times but never for the purpose of looting of booty but for the strategic importance attached to it by its geographical positioning. Its history of selective violence finds its traces way back in pre-medieval times of Mahmud Ghazni followed by the tyranny of Mughals like Aurangzeb and the recent one in 1990s.
And if anyone is thinking that the reason why both the countries are reluctant to relinquish the claim of Kashmir is because it is too beautiful a place to be made a part of bargain, then you are being naïve. There is a hell of strategic importance attached to this piece of land and it is all due to its geographical proximity to Gilgit-Baltistan. Not only India and Pakistan but the big chaps like USA, Russia & China all flirt with Pakistan only because it is having control over the corridor which links South Asia with Central Asia and then to the west.
Now moving back to Art. 370, we have to revisit the chain of events of the decade of 1940's, when Sheikh Abdullah became the darling of Jawahar Lal Nehru. The incompetence of Nehru and the shrewdness of Sheikh Abdullah, fused together to give birth to an illegitimate child called Art. 370. I also accuse Sardar Patel for the step-motherly attitude towards Kashmir when he unified the whole India but Kashmir.
The inception of this blunder goes back to the aspiration of Hari Singh to make Kashmir, Switzerland of east by keeping both India and Pakistan at bay, but Jawahar Lal Nehru had different plans. Astonishingly he had sought the assistance of a south Indian bureaucrat namely Gopal Ayyangar for drafting of this article. It is like consulting Ram Jethmalani for some cardiac disorders or Naresh Trehan for bail of a dreaded criminal. Jawahar Lal Nehru was so spell bound by Sheikh Abdullah that when the latter was arrested by Hari Singh on the charges of sedition, Nehru represented him as his lawyer and then was arrested while entering J&K.
Nehru finally succeeded to give a gift of this article to his dear friend Sheikh Abdullah, but not before kneeling before Sardar Patel for convincing the constituent assembly and congress party executive. But once Sardar had even said to V Shankar that "Jawahar Lal royega" i.e. Nehru will repent. Nehru that time had assured the party executive that this is just a temporary provision and will be gradually nullified with passing time. To the dismay of us people, the penultimate day has not arrived yet.
Today some high level propaganda has even reached such a stage that some Kashmiri separatist element and even former CM Omar Abdullah think that Art. 370 is the only string which is keeping them attached to India and its abrogation would automatically alienate them from India. A politician who failed to make it big while being a legislator quickly changed his faith from politics to separatist movement even fantasizes merger with Pakistan.
Nowadays he is being preached in Kashmir just because his rhetoric sooths and comforts them although unrealistically. He even went on record to say that "Hum Pakistani hain, Pakistan hamara hai". That idiot is Geelani, who nowadays is again experiencing a change of heart and admitting himself as Indian thereby asking for an Indian passport.
Kashmiris also sometime cry that if Art. 370 is abrogated then the valley would be thrown open to rest of India leading to its Indianization. The answer to this grievance is Art. 3 of Constitution of J&K which says "The state of Jammu & Kashmir is and shall be an integral part of Union of India".
While as in Jammu the scenario is exactly the opposite, the people of Jammu have even voted for a party which included abrogation of Article 370 in its election manifesto. And Ladakh is much busy in hosting foreign tourists and trekking the naked mountains than exhibiting any interest in this politics.
And politics here is so confused that even when BJP shows hostility towards this proviso the vigour is not visible once the election campaigns are over & congress is too inclusive to afford any stance towards this issue risking his votes of the separatist elements. Bhim Singh's JKNPP is too meagre to be relied upon for redressal of this grave issue and expecting anything from NC or PDP on abrogation of 370 is analogous to expecting a Mexican to appreciate Americans. But BJP should keep this thing in mind that it cannot keep milking people of Jammu for long if it does not turn up with a blueprint for its realisation and then accomplish it. The voters of Jammu should not be mistakened as their fiefdom by any particular party.
The truth of the matter is that no provision is sacrosanct enough to prevail when the available alternate is the integrity and sovereignty of India. In fact these all provisions were prepared just to compliment the governance and not to fall prey and succumb to the technicalities. The time will come when Jammu will be as open as is Jaipur and Kashmir as open as is Kanpur. For now let us all hope that ouster of this article rests in the womb of future.
Kr Swarn Kishore Singh, An advocate working in Supreme Court of India & a political observer. |
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