Hari Om is former Head of Jammu University’s History Department and former Dean of Jammu University’s Faculty of Social Sciences. He also headed Maharaja Gulab Singh Chair in the University of Jammu. Besides, he served the Indian Council of Historical Research for six years. He was also Professor of History in the NCERT, when Murli Manohar Joshi was Human Resource Development Minister and new history textbooks were written.
He co-authored “Contemporary India”, a textbook for the class IX students. He has authored “The 1998 Jammu revolt: How Farooq Abdullah saved his government”, “Nation Betrayed: Essays on Contemporary Jammu and Kashmir”, “Administration of Justice in Jammu and Kashmir”, “Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir”, “Debacle in Kashmir”, “Beyond the Kashmir Valley” and “Jammu and Kashmir: Conflicting perceptions”; co-edited “Politics of autonomy in Jammu and Kashmir” and “Burning issues in Jammu and Kashmir”; and co-authored “Social justice of Dr B R Ambedkar”.
Besides, he has contributed thousands of articles to The Indian Express, The Hindu, The Hindustan Times, The Times of India, The Statesman, The Pioneer, The Tribune, National Herald, Indian Defence Review, Amarujala, Dainik Jagran and Rashtriya Sahara.
The book deals with the circumstances leading to the reading down of seditious Article 370, abrogation of illegal and discriminatory Article 35A and reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir State on August 5-6, 2019. It also throws light on the nature of arguments put forth by the protagonists of separate status for Jammu and Kashmir based on purely religious considerations and flawed federal concept and flawed concepts of internal sovereignty, secularism and democracy and the counter arguments as put forth by the Narendra Modi Government in the Supreme Court to defend the reform scheme. Besides the nature of arguments advanced by the rabidly anti-integration and intensely pro integration senior counsels, the book also throws light on the very significant observations Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and other judges of the five-judge constitutional bench made and the pertinent questions they put to both sides petitioners and respondents. The book, in addition, deals with the nature of the Supreme Court’s judgement and its long-term impact on the country’s polity and the process of national integration. The results would have been disastrous, had the apex court given judgement against the 2019 reforms. The book also throws light on this aspect.