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| No slaughter of J&K constitution, respective government’s ratified amendments | | Justice Sagheer working Group report | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Oct 8: In sharp contravention to the claims of National Conference (NC) over its proposed formula of "Greater Autonomy" for addressing Kashmir issue, Justice Sagheer (Retd) has found nothing improper or objectionable in the process of application of central laws to Jammu and Kashmir from 1954 till date which in political parlance is dubbed as 'slaughter of autonomy'.
Besides, what may come as a rude shock for Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), both of whom took sides with one claiming victory and other cursing the retired high court judge for purportedly ignoring sentiments of people of Jammu region is the fact that report has neither recommended nor rejected proposed "Greater Autonomy" for Jammu and Kashmir but urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for further debating controversial issue of granting certain constitutional guarantees to the state.
The 196 page, four volume report along with 400 pages of annexures and a small booklet of recommendations was supposed to be handed over to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but was strangely presented to Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah on December 23, 2009 in Jammu by secretary to the group Ajit Kumar. The report has since then been kept confidential despite being a public document and hence, out of the purview of Legislative Assembly.
The only development that has taken place since the report was presented to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is that cabinet on Wednesday constituted a sub-committee for studying the report and pondering over its pros and cons keeping in view the aspirations of people of all the three regions of the State before making necessary recommendations to the Cabinet.
Formation of cabinet sub-committee was necessitated after Union Home Ministry had asked for comments of state government on the recommendations of the working group report. Further, according to reports, the sub-committee has been asked to submit detailed report to the cabinet for consideration within a period of three months.
Cabinet Sub-Committee comprises of Minister for Finance, Abdul Rahim Rather, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Mohd Sagar, Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Taj Mohi-ud-Din, Minister for Health, Sham Lal Sharma, Minister for Industries, Surjeet Singh Slathia, Minister for Tourism Nawang Rigzin Jora and Minister for Transport, Qamar Ali Akhoon.
The much leaked report, copy of which is exclusively with Early Times has in fact referred to former Prime Minister Late Indira Gandhi and said that she had categorically told Late Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah that hands of the clock cannot be turned back. Hence, in the report, it is not NC's "Greater Autonomy" proposal which was dumped by New Delhi without even taking a cursory glance at it.
Besides, the report has accepted almost all the grievances of Jammu region and recommended for addressing the same. It has referred to various earlier commissions including Gajendragadkar Commission and commented that while the reports of the earlier commissions have been accepted, if some recommendations have not been implemented, the same should be done at the earliest.
The report has strangely refused to discuss the Indo-Pak relationship vis-à-vis the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It has said that it was under its purview to discuss the same. Not only this, rejection of report by BJP and its allies without even going through the contents of the report speaks in volumes about the political significance of this extremely controversial report.
Sagheer report has actually strengthened the impression that its edited proposal of "Greater Autonomy" had been accepted and recommended by working group (WG) as only possible way of restructuring centre-state relationships. However, a thorough reading of the report brings to light the fact that NC's claims are baseless and merit no consideration.
Justice Sagheer has recommended that autonomy plan of National Conference (NC), PDP's self-rule be discussed along with other proposals opposing both these prepositions. "If consensus is arrived at in this process, appropriate follow-up action may be taken," recommends the report. The report says that Self-rule proposal of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was explained in parts, first by former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig and later in the last meeting of working group on September 2, 2007 by the PDP president Mehbooba Mufti.
PDP was asked to submit copy of self-rule proposal for consideration but they failed to provide the same to the Working Group despite repeated requests. However, report maintains that whatever Mehbooba Mufti and Muzaffar Hussain Beig spoke or proposed about 'Self-Rule' during the course of meetings of working group at Jammu and New Delhi respectively has been recorded in the minutes.
Report has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to hold another round of talks with political, social and other groups of Jammu and Kashmir for evolving some sought of consensus. It has strongly recommended that if PDP comes up with documents containing specific proposals of "Self Rule", the same should be debated along with NC's "Greater Autonomy" proposal.
The report has made a mention of two Indian Prime Ministers who had promised of further empowering the state of Jammu and Kashmir on the conditions that state leadership should be able to evolve consensus over some formula. Over the much debated Article 370, which confers special status to the state, group has in its report subtly adopted line taken by Gajendragadkar Commission which was set-up in 1968 to address regional disparities and suggest means of empowering regions.
Referring to recommendations of Gajendragadkar Commission, the group has maintained that it is for the people of Jammu and Kashmir to decide how long to continue Article 370 in its present form and when to make it permanent or abrogate it forever. Like the present Justice (Retd.) Sagheer Panel, Gajendragadkar Commission had also left it to political leadership of Jammu and Kashmir to arrive at a consensus over Article 370.
Referring to demand for scrapping of Article 356 of constitution of India under which the Centre has powers to impose Governor's rule in any part of the country including J&K, the report has discussed in detail opposition of BJP and other Jammu based leaders and later said that the issue would be difficult to settle until a consensus is arrived at.
The report says that NC led by Present Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather and CPI (M) led by Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami and CPI led by Rehman Takroo supported autonomy, PDP favoured self-rule, BJP representatives Arun Jaitley and Ashok Khajuria strongly advocated abrogation of Article 370 while LUTF leader Thupstan Chhewang sought Union Territory status for Ladakh.
However, contrary to public posturing and stand of BJP leaders over granting Union Territory (UT) status to Ladakh, the working group report says that party's representative Arun Jaitley repeatedly called for maintaining structural integrity of J&K. Report outlines that Jaitley during meetings of working group did not support LUTF representative Thupstan Chhewang's demand for giving UT status to Ladakh.
"Integrity of Jammu and Kashmir has to be maintained at all cost," Jaitely is learnt to have said during the meetings of the working group. Representative from Kargil Haji Nissar Ali called for strengthening relationship of Ladakh with other parts of state and Thupstan Chhewang who has now joined BJP failed to get support of other members. Hence, union territory demand for Ladakh was rejected.
Report has rejected demand for "Delimitation of constituencies' on the grounds that the same has been barred across India through a constitutional amendment. "Since the Constitutional amendment is not possible without political consensus, same cannot be held till the first census is carried out after the year 2026," the report affirms.
Referring to NC's position on "erosion of autonomy", Justice Sagheer's panel upholds the view that the central provisions have been applied under prescribed procedure and with duly elected state government's in position from time to time. In procedural terms, it appears that these measures had sanction and approval of state government of corresponding period which in turn represented the will of people.
Working group has noted that while Jammu and Kashmir constituent assembly under the Prime Ministership of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed took up the task of framing constitution which was ultimately enforced with effect from January 26, 1957; the then president of India with the concurrence of state government issued constitutional application to Jammu and Kashmir order (C.O.No.10 dated January 26, 1950) authorizing union parliament to make laws with respect to matters specified in the second schedule to the order.
This constitutional order, according to the WG report was superseded by another order on May 14, 1954. By this new constitutional order, a number of provisions of the federal constitution were made applicable to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Constitutional Order no 48 was amended by 43 others orders from February 11, 1956 (C.O.51) to February 19, 1994 (C.O.154).
Interestingly, a solitary serious attempt initiated by late Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah in 1980 after his return to power fell by the way side for want of interest in the state leadership to pursue it to its logical end. Page 52 of the working group report says "260 articles out of 395 of the federal constitution, 94 out of 97 entries of union list and 26 out of 47 entries of concurrent list of seventh schedule of the federal constitution have been applied to the state. Similarly, out of 12 schedules, 7 have been applied to the state in terms of article 370 of the constitution." |
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