{"id":5095,"date":"2014-05-30T22:21:14","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T16:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/?p=5095"},"modified":"2014-05-30T22:21:14","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T16:51:14","slug":"article-370-a-challenge-to-the-indian-nation-mahesh-kaul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/?p=5095","title":{"rendered":"Article 370-A Challenge to the Indian Nation – Mahesh Kaul"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"kashmir-riots\"<\/a>Article 370-A Challenge to the Indian Nation<\/p>\n

By Mahesh Kaul<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that Article 370 of the Constitution of India has been the centre of debate
\nfrom time to time. It has been interpreted in a wrong manner, as if it is the cardinal
\nprinciple of the Constitutional and political status of Jammu & Kashmir. The analysis of
\nArticle 370 has been based more on rhetoric and less on the actual nature of the Article.<\/p>\n

Article 370 was temporary, and hence, the so-called \u2018special status\u2019 of Jammu & Kashmir was
\nalso temporary. It was never meant to be permanent as understood by the forces who want to
\ntake the State out of the political and Constitutional ambit of India. It is pertinent to
\nunderline the provisions incorporated in Article 370 that empowered the President of India to:<\/p>\n

\u00bb Transfer powers to the Union with regard to such other subjects in the Union list and the
\nConcurrent List of the 7th Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which the President specified
\nwith the concurrence of the State Government.<\/p>\n

\u00bb Extend to the State the provisions of the Constitution of India, which were to be applied to
\nthe State with such modifications and expectations as the President would specify.<\/p>\n

It becomes amply clear that there is nothing in the above mentioned points that makes the Act
\nsacrosanct. However, on studying Article 370 carefully, it becomes clear that there are no
\nlimitations in terms of Amending it. Thus, technically speaking, there is no hurdle in
\nabrogating the Act if the sense of Parliament wants it to be so.<\/p>\n

Article 370 has become an insulator that is insulating the Jammu & Kashmir State from the
\nnational mainstream. The wrong interpretation of projecting this Article as the guarantor of a
\n\u2018State within the state\u2019 is a falsification of the Constitutional reality. This canard \u2014 that
\nthe Act is meant to keep the State away from the national mainstream \u2014 has helped fan Muslim
\nseparatist tendencies in Jammu & Kashmir who term it in a very perverted sense and say that
\nthe so-called special status was given to it to maintain its Muslim majority character. This
\nin itself is a deviation from the true meaning of this temporary Article which was supposed to
\nhave been erased long back as its abrogation is very much inherent in its being.<\/p>\n

The wrong interpretation of this Article has created many fault lines that are now staring the
\nnation in the face. It is a strange case in the Constitutional history of the India that a
\nvery weak Article has been given teeth by the out-of-context connotations that are now posing
\na challenge to secular nation-building in Jammu & Kashmir.<\/p>\n

Separatist formations and the so-called mainstream parties based in the Valley are using this
\narticle as a tool to propagate their communal agenda and subjecting non-Muslim minorities into
\nservitude of their communal politics.<\/p>\n

The result has been demographic change in the entire State with internal displacement of the
\nreligious minorities like Kashmiri Pandits in 1990 and the consolidation of the majoritarian
\ncommunal pockets that fan the air of Muslim separatism.<\/p>\n

It is a paradox that this Article is being used against the spirit of the Constitution by
\nhelping Muslim separatist tendencies to turn Jammu & Kashmir into a State which is against the
\nConstitution.<\/p>\n

Detractors of India argue that Article 370 was meant to address the wrongs of the accession of
\nthe State to the Indian Union as Jammu & Kashmir was a Muslim majority State. Therefore, they
\nargue, its separate identity had to be maintained within the Indian setup. They wrongly
\nbelieve that it was only by giving political concessions (like Article 370) that they joined
\nor acceded to the Indian Union, and that otherwise they would have joined Pakistan as it is a
\nMuslim majority nation. They are being fed half truths about the mechanism of partition and
\nthe nature of the instrument of accession!<\/p>\n

It is again a diversion from the Constitutional reality that shaped both India and Pakistan at
\nthe time of partition and independence. The reality being that it was British India that was
\nto be partitioned and the princely States were not the part of the partition plan. For the
\nprincely States, there were only two options of accession \u2014 India or Pakistan; and there was
\nno third option of independence or the so-called separate identity. Above all, the sovereignty
\nlay with the ruler and not the subjects of the princely State.<\/p>\n

To project Article 370 as an instrument for achieving Muslim influence or for fanning Kashmiri
\nMuslim separatism in Jammu & Kashmir is not only a perversion of an absolute order, but also
\nquestions the basis for the creation of India and Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Constitutional experts and political scientists have an added responsibility of interpreting
\nthis temporary Article in the right perspective and the sense in which it was framed in
\naddition to the foundation which has inherent in it the mechanism of its abrogation. The only
\nthing special about this Article is that its abrogation is inherent in its conception!<\/p>\n

Policy makers have to realise that the faster this Act is abrogated \u2014 as is its nature \u2014 the
\nbetter it is for secular nation-building as enshrined in the Constitution of India.<\/p>\n

******(Writer writes on geo political issues,Northern Frontier,Strategic Affairs,cultural
\n,historical,heritage and tourism related issues with special emphasis on Jammu and
\nKashmir and territorial integrity of the Indian nation.He is pursing PhD from
\nSHTM(School for Hospitality and Tourism Management),Faculty of Business
\nStudies,Univeristy of Jammu,Jammu )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article 370-A Challenge to the Indian Nation By Mahesh Kaul There is no doubt that… more »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5096,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5095\/revisions\/5096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}