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| Swamy does some plain- speaking, says accession final & irrevocable | | Day Of Celebrations -- II | | Rustam
JAMMU, Oct 25: Addressing the gathering at Jammu Club, Jammu, former Law Minister and Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy not only attacked Jawaharlal Nehru for taking the settled issue of Jammu and Kashmir to the Security Council, but also denounced Lord Mountbatten for going beyond the confines of the authority vested in him by the Indian Independence Act. He said Nehru approached the UN Security Council without discussing the matter in his Cabinet and it is time for the Union Government to withdraw the complaint from the Security Council. His argument was that it was his personal decision to take the case to the Security Council and, hence, the Union Government is not bound to respect that unwarranted decision. He accused Nehru of allowing the nominated Governor-General of India, Mountbatten, for doing something he was not competent to do. His suggestion was that Mountbatten subverted the Indian Independence Act of 1947 by suggesting that the will of the people of Jammu and Kashmir needed to be taken into consideration for settling the issue of accession. Swamy did the right thing.
Swamy did not stop here. He opposed the idea of a dialogue between Pakistan and India saying Pakistan has no locus standi in the Indian Jammu and Kashmir and that the only issue that still remains unresolved between the two countries is the political future of the territories which have been under the illegal occupation of Pakistan since 1947-1948. To be more precise, he expressed himself in favour of reintegration into India the occupied territories. Swamy, in addition, took on those demanding the pre-1953 politico-constitutional status or self-rule for the state asserting that the needles of the clock just cannot be turned back. He dismissed these demands, plus the demand for the revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, as manifestations of the Kashmiri leadership's communal approach. He said it is the Congress that is responsible for the whole mess in the state.
But more than that, Swamy argued that it is time for the Union Government to abrogate Article 370 of the Indian Constitution as it is a temporary provision. He asserted that the President of Indian can do so in no time by issuing an executive order. He also said that the Indian Parliament need not be taken into confidence in order to remove from the Indian Constitution Article 370 as the said Article empowers the President of India to abrogate it. What is required is, he said, a proposal from the Union Government to the effect that Article 370 be abrogated.
That Swamy only spoke the truth could be seen from the fact that the Union Government did not even once take the Parliament into confidence when Jammu and Kashmir remained under Governor/President rule for more than six years (January 19, 1990 to October 9, 1996). It could happen only because the Union President exercises unbridled executive powers as far as Jammu and Kashmir is concerned. Exercising these executive powers, the President of India can keep the state under his/her rule for any number of years. The fact of the matter is that Article 356 of the Indian Constitution is not applicable to the state. Under Article 356, the Union Government can keep any of the states of the Union under the President rule for a maximum period of one year and if after the completion of one year it is found that the situation deserves another spell of President Rule, then it has no other option but to bring the whole issue to the notice of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. For example, the militant-infested and disturbed Punjab remained under the President Rule from 1987 to 1992 and in the process the Indian Constitution was amended at least four times.
The truth, in short, is that Jammu and Kashmir is and shall remain an integral part of India as the accession of the state with India was as per the constitutional law on the subject. Section 3 of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution and Article I of the Indian Constitution clearly make the position very clear. Remember, the Indian Constitution, unlike the Constitution of the erstwhile Soviet Union, does not provide for the right to secede. The Indian Constitution, like the American Constitution, clearly says that no part of the country can secede from India.
October 26 is, in fact, a day of celebrations and thanks-giving. It is also a day for the people of the state, nay the entire nation, to remember Maharaja Hari Singh who on the epoch-making day linked our fate with great country, called India. It is indeed a matter of great satisfaction that the people this time have decided to celebrate this historic day with great pomp and show, with renewed vigour and with a spirit to make any supreme sacrifice to preserve the territorial integrity of India. There is no doubt whatever that Jammu and Kashmir shall ever remain part of India. (Concluded) |
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