Rebutting the Indian claim of Occupied Kashmir being part of India, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has ruled that the State has never been part of India. “Article 370 of Indian constitution that deals with the status of Jammu and Kashmir is beyond abrogation, repeal or even amendment,” the high court said in its ruling last week.“Article 35A gives ‘protection’ to existing laws in force in the State. Article 370 though titled as ‘Temporary Provision’ and included in Para XXI titled ‘Temporary, Transitional and Special Provisions’ has assumed place of permanence in the Constitution,” a division bench of justice Hasnain Masoodi and Janak Raj Kotwal ruled in a 60-page judgement. “It is beyond amendment, repeal or abrogation, in as much as Constituent Assembly of the State before its dissolution did not recommend its Amendment or repeal,” the bench ruled. The decision has been highly welcomed by the local parties and political figures representing the major population, Muslims. Even though Indian governments have routinely reneged on their commitment to a plebiscite based on the demand for Kashmiri self-determination, they have had the common sense to let the territory maintain its ‘special status’ as guaranteed by the Indian constitution.One of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election promises was to do away with the constitution’s Article 370 and thus incorporate the Muslim-majority territory into the Indian Union. Friday’s decision should make it clear to Mr Modi that Kashmir’s special status is justified, that the territory under Indian occupation is part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, that it was India itself which took the dispute to the UN, and that the only solution lies in giving the Kashmiri people the right to self-determination. It is time Mr Modi concentrated his energies on controlling the communal tension which the increasing influence of Hindutva has triggered in India besides addressing the rights violations in IHK which international human rights bodies have repeatedly condemned.
pk.shafaqna.com
