JKNEWS TODAY EDITORIAL
Certain ambiguities embedded in the minds of many in the nation, particularly Jammu and Kashmir that the Article 370 of the Indian constitution is a permanent and the state has the unquestioned privileges bestowed to it that cannot be touched, have been effectively removed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. He pointed out that the Article that confers special status was not only temporary and transitory in nature, but also it was because of the individual inclination of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru toward his friends in Kashmir that this provision was made part of the constitution.
This Article had to go with the passage of time , but the politics of Congress party and its policies on Kashmir kept it there, as the Congress party that ruled at the Centre for most of the 70 years after independence could not gather the courage to undo a wrong done by their leader .Shah made this point in response to the thesis peddled by some in the Parliament that the Special status of J&K was protected under Article 370 and hence the Centre cannot intervene in its matters beyond a point . They were opposing the extension of the President’s rule in J&K- the state has been under central rule since June last year after the BJP-PDP government collapsed with BJP withdrawing support to the government. But Amit Shah showed them the mirror and stated a historical fact that the provision is temporary and no guarantees or special privileges under it can be claimed forever.
The facts are there. Amit Shah has shown a fact of life of the Indian constitution that many were seeking to hide as always by just referring to Article 370 as the one that grants special status to the state and it was embedded in the minds as something permanent and irrevocable. Shah has told the historical truth that it is not the case. The provision is temporary. That meant that its life is long over.
More than what Shah said that the Article 370 is temporary, by extension he has hit at the politics of blackmail that was used by few politicians to further their political interests and always projected Article 370 as something sacrosanct. That it is not. Shah has made it clear for once and all.
