Kundan Kashmiri
Hence, the return of KPs to consolidated place at the Land of Kashyap (Kashmir Valley) with free flow of Indian Constitution having institutional and constitutional guarantees and abrogation of the Article 370 is only viable solution of KPs resettlement which could also prove helpful in solving the so-called Kashmir issue.
Another vital demand of Kashmiri Pandits is abrogation of Articles 370 for which they have firm opinion that this Article was brought in force temporarily in the State of J and K, hence special status of J and K State was also temporary. The analysis of the said Article has been based more on rhetoric and less on the actual nature of the article. “It is pertinent to underline the provisions incorporated in Article 370 that empowered the President of India to transfer the powers to the Union of India with regard to such other subjects in the union list the concurrent list of the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which the President specified with the concurrence of the State Govt. and extend to the State the provisions of the Constitution of India which were to be applied to the State with such modifications and expectations as the President of India would specify”.
It is, therefore, ample clear that there is nothing in the above mentioned points that makes the Act sacrosanct. The in-depth perusal of Article 370, clearly indicates that there are no limitations in terms of amending it. Thus, there is no hurdle in abrogation of the Act, if the Indian Parliament so desires. This Article 370 is responsible for insulating the State of J and K from the nation mainstream. It has become hurdle for private entrepreneurs and others of outside J and K State for industrialisation and other development. The wrong interpretation of this Article as the guarantor of a State within the State is a falsification of the constitutional reality. This canard helped Muslim separatists and so-called secularist leaders and others of the J and K State to argue that the special status was given to maintain the states Muslim majority character. These wrong interpretations of Article 370 has created many fault lines that are now staring the nation in the face. It is strange case in the Indian constitutional history that weak Article has been given teeth by out of context connotations that are now posing challenge to J and K State to have in integral part of India. Kashmiri separatists and so called mainstream in the Valley are using article 370 as a tool to propagate their communal agenda and subjecting non-Muslim minorities into servitude of the communal politics. The result has been demographic change in the entire State with the internal displacement of religious minorities, like Kashmiri Pundits in 1989-90 and the consolidation of majoritarian communal pockets that fuel separatism. If the said Article would not have been in force in the State of J and K, the Hindus of the Valley could not have been forced out of their homes and hearths as it happened because of being in minority. Abrogation of Article 370 was also commitment of first Prime-Minister of India in 1963 when Patel raised the issue. It is responsibility of Govt. of India, nationalist forces as well as constitutional experts to interpret this temporary Article 370 in right perspective and the sense it was framed.
These Kashmiri leaders at one had neither like there fellow citizens of the country to settle in J and K nor allow Indian laws to get implemented in the State, but at the other hand they like to enjoy more freedom and privileges in the rest of the country. As they can travel across length and breadth of the country for jobs, can work and set up their business in any where in India, can construct houses and could study any where in the country. But an Indian citizen of rest of the country cannot do the same in the State of J and K. They (Kashmiri leaders) also at the same time ignore the fact that other part of the Kashmir (PoK) does not have such nature of Article restricting the people of Pakistan to settle in PoK or stopping laws of Pak Govt. to get implemented what these Kashmiri leaders have to say for this all. Even certain portion of J and K territory has been given to China for which the said leaders of the Kashmir are silent, but harping for implementation of Article 370 in the State permanently and also trying to unsettle the settled issue of Kashmir.
Hence abrogation of Article 370 is pre–condition for return of Kashmiri Pandits to Valley.
(Concluded)
