The Political Prostitution - Part 2:Lalit k kaul

 

The Political Prostitution - Part 2

(The abrogation of nonexistent Article 370 for creation of UT)

alit K Kaul

It was an unbelievably swift act coming as though a bolt out of the blue. Entire Nation was sent reeling in to a speculative mode on this sudden action of the central government. A day prior to it the ex Chief Minister of the erstwhile J&K state, Sri Farooq Abdullah, had met the Prime Minister, Sri Narendra Modi. The yearly Holy Amarnath Yatra was called off without giving any reason and without respecting the religious sentiments of the devotees who had gathered at the holy cave or were on their way – some half way, some three fourth way, etc- to the holy shrine having come from length and the breadth of as vast a country as ours expending their hard earned money and valuable time. The whole caravan was brought to a screeching halt only to reverse its direction of expedition. So much for the claims of the Hindutva ideology! This singular act of the powers that be should put to rest the farcical political narrative of ‘communal versus secular’ that ignores the precedence of the State’s interests over those of its subjects.

Companies of paramilitary forces were brought in and deployed in the erstwhile state of J&K giving birth to speculations like, a major terrorist attack was in the offing; the terrorist plan to attack the yatris had been decoded; Indo-Pak war was to break out, and all that the fertile minds could imagine.

Prior to the said lightening act the political leaders of different political parties in the erstwhile state of J&K were busy warning and cautioning the central leadership not to fiddle with Article 370 as any kind of fiddling or its abrogation would snap the ties between the state and the Indian Union and would lead to bloodshed. Of course such untoward and irresponsible declarations were made by them while not in power at that point of time and were symptomatic of a very deep rooted political corruption. By and large the people had taken their statements as mere rhetoric of the leaders out of power.

Having accomplished the basic tasks of making fool proof arrangements ensuring zero violence in the state, the bill to abrogate Article 370 and 35 A was introduced in both the houses of the Parliament and passed facilitating extermination of the Articles from the domain defining relationship between Indian Union and the then state of J&K.

The question that begs an answer even today is: What possibly transpired between the Prime Minister, Sri Narendra Modi and ex Chief Minister, Sri Farooq Abdullah a day before this unprecedented step of calling off the Yatra and deploying paramilitary forces in large numbers in the region was taken? While the answer to this question may go public in some years to come, an attempt is made in the following text to answer what of the Article 370 had remained to be abrogated; or to be more precise: was there any such Article in vogue that needed to be abrogated?

1.     The Genesis of Article 370:

The erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) state was a princely state at the time of the independence of India and emergence of Pakistan, in the year 1947. All the princely states (around 547 in number) were given the option of choosing to 1) accede to India or 2) accede to Pakistan or 3) remain an independent and sovereign state. To have a direct contiguity of the princely state of J&K with the   Indian Union, in case the Maharaja chose to accede to it, Sir Cyril Redcliff awarded Pathankot to the Indian Union though earlier it had been declared to be a part of Pakistan and this readjustment of the boundaries between the two countries came to be known as the Redcliff Award.

While nearly all the princely states decided to accede to the India Union, the ruler of erstwhile princely state of J&K, Maharaja Hari Singh, remained indecisive insofar as accession to India or Pakistan was concerned, as he was more inclined to have it as an independent sovereign state. While he was yet to decide firmly on one of the three options, a savagely and barbarous act was unleashed by Pakistan on October 22, 1947 when Pakistan's Pashtun tribal militias crossed the border of the state leading to hitherto unimagined political developments.

1a.The Instrument of Accession:

The Maharaja, not anticipating such an invasion, was not prepared for it. He sought Indian government’s help to thwart the onslaught of marauding tribals aided by Pakistan army, but Indian government refused to intervene as the princely state had not acceded to India. Hence, to enable intervention Instrument of Accession was signed between Maharaja Hari Singh and the Indian government. The accession of Jammu and Kashmir was accepted by Lord Mountbatten of Burma, Governor-General of India on 27 October 1947.

The instruments of accession executed by the rulers, provided for the accession of states to the Dominion of India (or Pakistan) on three subjects, namely, defence, external affairs and communications.

Thereafter Indian army engaged itself with the task of pushing the marauding tribals and Pakistani army personnel beyond the frontiers of the princely state. While the battle was on, at some point of time cease fire was declared which ended up partitioning the princely state and for dispute resolution the matter was referred to the United Nations Security Council. It remains unresolved till date.

2.     The Article 370:     

Article 370 was a political agreement between the Indian Union and the erstwhile truncated state of J&K. It can be said that it was a kind of an extension of the Instrument of Accession signed between the Maharaja of erstwhile princely state of J&K and Indian Union.

Among other features of the Act, the most important were that the erstwhile truncated J&K state was to have its Prime Minister (instead of Chief Minister) and Sadar-e-Riyasat (in place of Governor) including its own flag and Constitution, etcetera. Now having a Prime Minister (PM) implies sovereignty of the region and therefore Article 370 defined a unique relationship between the erstwhile truncated J&K state and the Indian Union as it was different from the full and complete merger of the other princely states with the Indian Union.

Sri Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was the first PM and Sri Karan Singh the first Sadar-e-Riyasat. On August 8, 1953 Sheikh Abdullah was dismissed from the post of PM and put under house arrest because he was found to be dishonouring the said political agreement by way of hobnobbing with Pakistan and simultaneously nurturing political designs of establishing an independent sovereign state of J&K. Sheikh Abdullah’s political discourse always remained ambivalent while trying to hold on to the reigns of political power.

Post dethronement of Sri Sheikh Abdullah, Sri Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad became the second PM of J&K state and continued to be so until 1963 when his resignation- under the Kamraj Plan- was accepted by the then PM of India  Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru.

Thereafter Sri Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq was made the PM, but was relegated to the Chief Minister (CM) chair in few months time. The Sadar-e-Riyasat was re designated as Governor. After Sri Sadiq, Sri Mir Qasim became the CM of the state. So post Bakshi period the J&K state had only CMs and no PM. This implied that politically J&K state was now at par with other states of India except that it had its own flag and constitution. The relegation of PM post to that of CM implied that it was no longer a completely sovereign state. However there were carried out many amendments in the Article 370 through various notifications duly following the process of law like, Presidential orders of 1950, 1952, 1954 and thereafter continually during the period 1955 – 2018. So the said Article had basically lost its significance and role in the J&K state as more and more central laws were made applicable to it for governance. Article 370 no longer enjoyed the status of being the basis for the political relationship between the state and the union. It had lost its relevance.

2a.The Indira Sheikh Agreement 1974 (Final Nail in the Coffin):

Sri Sheikh Abdullah had been released from house arrest and having been an acknowledged leader of the masses, the then PM of India, Smt. Indira Gandhi sought to politically rehabilitate him. So an agreement was signed between the representatives of the two sides that facilitated CM post for Sheikh Abdullah.

Some interesting features of this agreement were:

1.     The residuary powers of legislation shall remain with the State; however, Parliament will continue to have power to make laws relating to the prevention of activities directed towards disclaiming, questioning or disrupting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India or bringing about cession of a part of the territory of India or secession of a part of the territory of India from the Union or causing insult to the Indian National Flag, the Indian National Anthem...

2.     No agreement was possible on the question of nomenclature of the Governor and the Chief Minister.....

Thus Sri Sheikh Abdullah agreed to be the CM instead of the PM of the state and that was a very momentous day in the history of J&K insofar as total integration of the state with the Indian Union was concerned not forgetting the fact that the tallest leader of Kashmiris had given his consent for the same.

So Article 370 lost its relevance politically and over the years was further diluted by in numerous amendments as listed in the aforesaid lines. So for all political and administrative requirements it ceased to exist.

The Political Blackmail:

What remained was just a flag which nobody in the state even noticed because it remained hoisted in a very dilapidated condition only on the secretariat building in Srinagar. Despite a nonexistent 370 or at the best an Article that had lost all its sheen the people of the state were fed on the falsehoods like this Article defines the relationship between the state and the Union. Moreover Article 35 A was misused to deliberately create discord between different religious communities. Under the cover of special status the state was deprived of various people oriented schemes floated by the central government.

While every political party and its leadership knew that the Article 370 had become meaningless yet using it as a so called special relationship that indicated that the erstwhile J&K state was not fully integrated with India, plans were set in motion to destabilize the region to such an extent that India would be obliged to let go of her legitimate territory. Pakistan came very handy and the Kashmiri leadership (the so called separatists) who led the so called AZADI movement against the Indian State continued to be on pay rolls of Pakistan and their security was guaranteed by the so called main stream political parties of the J&K state! So Indian tax payer was made to pay for the security of those who were supposed to be leading a movement seeking separation of J&K region from India!! Could there be a bigger political prostitution than this! Yet it continued for 30 long years which also saw forced exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits from the valley in 1990 and thereafter. While the leaders prospered the common man suffered trauma as they continued to lose their kith and kin.

The Union Territory - A Political Imperative:

The nexus between the ever growing terror industry in Pakistan and the ever increasing prosperity of the self styled leaders was flourishing on the grounds of Article 370 which was nonexistent.

This was the highest level of political prostitution wherein something non-existent had been kept alive threatening the very integrity of the Indian Union. If this had to be put to an end then terror had to be stopped in its tracks and the confusion as created by the vested interests over the status of the erstwhile J&K state with Indian Union, had to be cleared through a political initiative. So in the name of the abrogation of the nonexistent Article 370, the erstwhile state was divided in to two regions and each one given the status of Union Territory and thereby fully integrating both with the Indian Union.