STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Kashmiri Pandit Conference (KPC) on Wednesday demanded abrogation of Article 370.
In a Memorandum submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Governor N.N Vohra, KPC Chief Kundan Kashmiri said that abrogation of Article 370 is the need of the time.
Kundan said that Article 370 was brought in force temporarily in the State of J and K, therefore, the so- called special status of Jammu and Kashmir was also temporary. “It was never meant to be permanent as understood by the forces who want to take the State out of the political and constitutional ambit of India”, he added.
He further said that the analysis of the Article 370 has been based more on rhetoric and less on the actual nature of this Article.
He informed that the provisions incorporated in the Article 370 that empower the President of India to transfer powers to union with regard to such subjects in the union list and the concurrent list of the 7th Schedule of the Indian Constitution which the President specifies with concurrence of the State Government and extend to the State with such modifications and expectations as the President of India would specify. “It is, therefore, clear that there is nothing that makes the Article 370 sacrosanct. The in-depth perusal of Article 370 clearly shows that there are no limitations in terms of its amendment. Thus, there is no hurdle in abrogating Article 370, if the Indian Parliament so desires”, he affirmed.
“The wrong interpretation of the Article as the guarantor of the State is a falsification of the constitutional reality. This canard helped Muslims, separatists and so-called secular leaders of J and K State to argue that the special status was given to maintain the State’s Muslim majority character. These wrong interpretations of Article 370 have created many fault lines that the nation is facing at present. Kashmiri separatists and so-called main stream political parties in the valley are using Article 370 as a tool of propaganda for their communal agenda and subjecting non- Muslim minorities in to servitude of the communal politics”, he maintained.
“It is responsibility of Government of India, nationalist forces as well as constitutional experts to interpret this temporary Article 370 in the right perspective and the scene it was actually framed”, he demanded.
