The abrogation of Article 370 has many virtues but one of its singular achievements has been that dishonest and hypocrite politicians from the Valley have been exposed

Six weeks have gone by since the Narendra Modi Government took the historic step to abrogate Article 370 and bring the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir into the mainstream. When one examines the global and domestic response to this momentous decision, one realises what a heavy price India has paid for 70 years because of the indecisiveness of the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the Nehruvians, who ran this country for close to seven decades.  

The spadework done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in terms of global diplomacy over the last five years has really paid off when one sees how he has ensured that the international community accepts India’s position that issues pertaining to Jammu & Kashmir are “an internal matter” of India.

The historical fact is that in 1947, all princely States in undivided India had the option to either remain independent or accede to India or Pakistan. A total of 564 princely States acceded to the Indian Union. This included the State of Jammu & Kashmir, which signed the Instrument of Accession on October 26, 1947. Pakistan was unhappy with the decision of Jammu & Kashmir becoming a part of India; it sent the armed forces into the State and occupied a part of its territory. Since the State acceded to India, and part of its territory is in illegal occupation of Pakistan, India has to re-acquire what is now called Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and some of the territories ceded by Pakistan to China. This is what is meant by “Kashmir dispute.”

This primer on what is the “Kashmir dispute” is necessary because the Congress, the Nehruvians and the Marxists, who constituted “the Establishment” in Delhi until 2014, allowed Pakistan to get away with the argument that the State, which legitimately acceded to India, was in dispute. The Modi Government has done remarkably well in correcting this position and that is why, for the first time in 70 years, many nations have declared that matters pertaining to Jammu & Kashmir are India’s “internal matter.” This includes Russia, the US, Australia, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to name a few. Closer home, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Maldives have unequivocally taken the stand that this is India’s internal issue. The international community also knows now that the Valley comprises just 14 per cent of the land area of the former State and much of the mischief is engineered in just five districts of the Valley. Thanks to the incompetence of the Nehruvians, the world had believed that the entire State was in strife. This stands corrected now.

As regards the internal situation in Jammu & Kashmir, it must be noted that since the days of Sheikh Abdullah, the so-called political leaders of that State — actually leaders from the Kashmir Valley — developed a vested interest in preserving Articles 370 and 35A in order to demographically insulate the State and prevent the blossoming of secular and democratic traditions within its territory. Though some of these leaders sometimes paid lip service to the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits — the Hindu minority which was driven out of the State 30 years ago — they did nothing to ensure their safe return. They were happy that the Valley had become a wholly Muslim territory.

Following the Government’s decision to abrogate Article 370, India has got to know how unconstitutional and discriminatory these provisions were. For example, it came as a shock to the people to know that many of the provisions relating to the reservation of educational seats and jobs for certain classes of people, including the economically backward classes, were never enforced in the Jammu & Kashmir.

Second, while the Valmiki community lived in the State and attended to scavenging and other municipal works, they were not given permanent residency in the old regime. Equally absurd was the fact that while they had the right to vote in the Lok Sabha election, they were not entitled to vote in the State Assembly elections.

Third, a Kashmiri woman, who married outside the State, would lose her right to permanent residency and her progeny, too, would be disentitled. These are just three of the many such extremely discriminatory and unconstitutional provisions that prevailed in the former State of Jammu & Kashmir.

Articles 370 and 35A also proved highly discriminatory for the citizens of India living in other States. While Kashmiris could study in the best of educational institutions, secure employment and set up homes all over the country, citizens from other States were prohibited from securing admission in Kashmiri colleges or finding employment there. They were also expressly barred from buying property in that State and settling down there. Again, while you find Kashmiri businessmen everywhere in India, especially in all major tourist locations, Indians from other States were prohibited from setting up businesses in Kashmir.

It is indeed a matter of shame that political leaders in the Kashmir Valley, who cry hoarse about democracy, never stood up for the rights of the Hindu minority or the Valmikis or even the Kashmiri women. Nor did they see any reason for ending the discrimination against other Indians. But these politicians, who lacked the decency and political will to protect the minority, have the temerity to speak about democracy and secularism and shed tears over the alleged depletion in secular values in other parts of the country.

It is even more shameful that many media organisations, especially some English television channels where these politicians were regular fixtures, failed to ask them how India’s secular traditions could be preserved if the Hindu minority in the only Muslim-majority State in the country was hounded out of the Valley. These hypocritical media outlets provided these politicians a regular platform to berate the rest of the country for any deficiencies in the working of democracy without ever holding them accountable for the brutal assault on the Hindu minority in their State.

The abrogation of Article 370 has many virtues but this writer would say that one of its singular achievements will be to expose these dishonest, hypocrite politicians of the Kashmir Valley, who while denying the rest of India entry into the Valley, have acquired permanent residency status in Lutyens’ Delhi!

Equally shameful is how the so-called “secular fundamentalists” admit these rank Muslim communalists as very special citizens of the Lutyens’ zone and even parade them as the symbols of secularism. Thanks to Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, these hypocrites from the Valley stand completely exposed. They must now be delegitimised in Lutyens’ Delhi as well.

(The writer is an author specialising in democracy studies. Views expressed are personal)