J-K Assembly passes resolution on Article 370, confrontation with centre on anvil

Real issue for the Centre now would be to counter this narrative that the people of J&K rejected the abrogation of  Article 370 .

The Jammu and Kashmir legislative Assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution seeking restoration of special status and other constitutional guarantees enlisted in the Article 370 that was abrogated on August 5, 2019 by the government of India. The passage of this resolution by voice vote in the House amidst chaotic scenes  as the 28-member strong BP members  staged noisy protests offers a peep into the confrontation between the Centre and the Omar Abdullah government in the days to come. It may prove to be a flashpoint in Srinagar-Delhi relations .

The ruling National Conference was bound by its commitments to the voters who voted for it in response to its  election time promise   to work for the restoration of the Article 370 that granted special status and several inviolable  constitutional guarantees to the erstwhile state, now broken into two union territories and degradation of J&K to UT . Omar Abdullah had also promised that if his party  will bring a resolution to this effect if it is voted to power. This is political significance of the resolution as it conveyed that the ruling party reflecting the will and aspirations of its voters has done what it had promised . More than that, it has also conveyed a message to the world, that J&K has not accepted the “ unilateral;” removal of the special status and the constitutional guarantees  that it had prior to August 5, 2019 . 

The real issue for the Centre now would be to counter this narrative that the people of J&K rejected the abrogation of  Article 370 . It will have to reinvent its narrative beyond the arguments that it had in its kitty that the Parliament  had passed the abrogation of Article 370 , the constitutionality and legality of which was later upheld by the Supreme Court . It had also claimed that the people of J&K had given a thumbs up to the revocation of the special status and the special privileges to the natives of the erstwhile state.

BJP had repeatedly cited the peaceful elections in J&K as an endorsement of its moves , which was extended to the claim that terror violence had come down and the people were going about their daily chores without any fear . This claim, however,  was dented with the recent terror attacks on civilians and soldiers  More than a dozen civilians have been killed and many more wounded in the terror attacks, and most alarming were the attacks on the civilians in the capital city of Srinagar. Though Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has vowed to crush terrorism with heavy hand and also given a free hand to the security forces to take on terrorists and their harbourers, and even ordered that  houses of those sheltering  terrorists be razed to ground . He made it  clear that terrorism would not find any space nor will there be any compromise on it.

It is a fact that this resolution  passed in the J&K Assembly would have no bearing on the current status of J&K , as the issue  falls in  jurisdiction of the Parliament, no other legislative body, including the duly elected Assembly in J&K can  affect any changes . But what is significant is the message that the resolution seeks to convey that all were not happy with the abrogation of Article 370, and it also undermines the national  narrative that everything is hunky dory in J&K

But the saving grace in the whole episode is that while resolution called for restoration of statehood , it laid stress on dialogue with the elected representative and conciliation of the national security and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.