Abrogation of article 370 and It’s One Year
Colonel Dev Anand
Discriminatory Article 35A is gone, establishing gender equality for women. West Pakistani Refugees, Valmiki safai karamcharis, Gorkhas soldiers who were part of Maharaja Army and all those residing or serving for more than 10 years in state are now recognised as state subjects and have been granted domicile rights.
5 August 2019, marked one year when Bharat Parliament abrogated the discriminatory article 370 and 35 A and passed the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 enacting the division of the state of J&K into two Union Territories to be called Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh.
The majority Bharatiya believed that the article denied section of society their constitutional rights and was providing cover to forces inimical to Bharat in harboring antinational / separatist agendas. Article 370 prevented large number of provisions of the constitution and various social-emancipatory laws passed by the Parliament since these laws needed the approval of the state assembly of Jammu and Kashmir for enactment in state. It created a formidable roadblock in the pursuit of social empowerment and social justice.
Despite swearing loyalty to Constitution of Bharat these two articles were utilized by the Kashmir-centric leadership to disrespect Constitutional Orders passed by parliament, amass & misuse central budget and alienate the Kashmiri Muslim population from Bharat under garb & arrogance of separate constitution, separate flag and a separate Prime Minister who always wanted the pot of militancy to continue to simmer.
Post abrogation of Article 370, out of 354 state laws (164 repelled and 138 modified) and 170 central laws are now applicable in the state like Prevention of Corruption Act, Right to Education Act, Maintenance & Welfare of Parents & Senior Citizens Act-2001, National Commission for Minority Act and Acts for the benefit of Women, Children, Disabled, 73rd & 74th amendments of Panchayati Raj Institutions and urban local bodies, Anti-Corruption Bureau is functional and IPC & Cr PC are now applicable like rest of the country.
Discriminatory Article 35A is gone, establishing gender equality for women. West Pakistani Refugees, Valmiki safai karamcharis, Gorkhas soldiers who were part of Maharaja Army and all those residing or serving for more than 10 years in state are now recognised as state subjects and have been granted domicile rights. To compensate for decades of injustice, financial assistance of Rs 5.5 lakh per family has also been provided.
Education has received a boost with new 50 Colleges, 7 Medical Colleges and 5 Nursing Colleges. Reservation has been extended to various deserving sections of society with 10 % reservation for Economically Weaker Sections, 4 % reservation for 70,000 residents of Border areas, 4 % reservation for 1.75 lakh Pahari speaking people; Reservation for physically challenged people too has been enhanced from 3 to 4%. Scheduled Tribes too have been promised benefit of political reservation.
The separatist and pro Pakistan voices have been silenced and Hurriyat has become a non-entity. Terrorism is on the decline in J&K with the security forces going all out to wipe out terrorists and their bases. Nearly150 militants have been eliminated in J&K so far this year including important terrorist leaders. Post 5 August 2019, there has been a visible fall in terror attacks (120 as compared to 188 in 2019), grenade attacks ( 21 as compared to 51 in 2019) and terrorist recruitment & stone pelting incidences too have seen a decline.
Fresh delimitation commission has been ordered to remove skewed distribution of assembly seats believed to be anti Gurjar and in favour of Kashmir Valley. Gurjars the real nomads who not only stood with Bharat but also acted as eyes and ears of army on LOC popularly known unpaid soldiers. The terms and condition of the commission should not disturb the Gurjar and Gurjar bakarwal aspiration of ST political representation in garb of enhancing political base by adding additional castes and communities.
The much required development has suffered a temporary setback despite adequate budgetary support due to the onset of corona pandemic. Case in point of establishing “Land banks” for setting up of industries. Investors’ Summit too had been called off due to the Corona.
The post 5 August 19, discomfort of China is quite visible in China’s racking up abrogation of 370 issue in UNO and the aggressive posturing in Leh . China is rightly feeling threatened to the Bharat governments stand to reclaim POK including the Aksai Chin as it has direct implications on it’s Economic Corridor dream and the strategic highways connecting Lahasa with China.
Bharat stands on sound footings with international community siding with it. Bharat must take full advantage of post COVID-19 anti-China world order and isolated China to gain strategic advantages and to settle POK promise.
