• By reorganising Kashmir’s political status, Modi govt. is addressing a colonial mess
• In Africa and Asia, there are countless territorial conflicts. The Indo-Tibetan frontier opened up by Curzon remains a contested boundary dispute between India and China. More broadly, the buffers and protectorates constructed by the Raj to limit conflict with Russia are now zones of political contestation between India and a rising China.
• The Durand Line drawn between India and Afghanistan in 1893, a few years before Curzon arrived in India, remains disputed between Kabul and Islamabad. Even the Taliban, nurtured by Pakistan as an instrument to gain influence in Afghanistan, does not accept the Durand Line.
• Many other peripheries of the Raj, from Balochistan in the west to Xinjiang and Kashmir in the north to Tibet and the eastern Himalayan regions between India, upper Burma and China are all in a turmoil of varying degrees.
• Part of the problem lies in the nature of the frontiers that the Subcontinent inherited from the Raj.
• The land borders of India were not defined by a single line, but by what Curzon identified as the three-fold frontier.
• There was the “administrative frontier” that marked out regions that the Raj governed to the fullest extent.
• Beyond that was the “frontier of active defence” like the Durand Line.
• A third was the “strategic frontier” consisting of the outer boundaries of protectorates over which the Raj exercised a measure of control.
• Article 370 has prevented J&K to merge with India rather than being a basis of its merger.
• Article 370 was seen as discriminatory on the idea of gender, class, caste and place of origin.

Economic development:

• Post the repeal of Article 370, doors to private investment in J&K would be opened, which would, in turn, increase the potential for development there.
• Increased investments would lead to increased job creation and further betterment of socio-economic infrastructure in the state.
• Opening of shopping for lands would usher in investments from private individuals and multinational companies and provides a lift to the local economy.

Confusion over Control of Territories

• While the British Raj, Czarist Russia and Qing China found ways to live with ambiguities in remote corners of the empire, the new nationalist regimes that succeeded them have had much more difficulty.
• The Partition of the subcontinent, based on religious considerations, added an explosive dimension to an already complex inheritance.
• The successor states to the empires laid formal claims to tracts of territory that had an ambivalent status, but have struggled to realise them.
• The colonial past has left territories that are claimed by many countries with significant challenges
• Pakistan has struggled to find stability on its western borderlands — where the Baloch and the Pashtun continue to challenge its claims.
• China reacted furiously when Delhi in 1975 ended Sikkim’s protectorate status and integrated it with India. It took nearly three decades for China to accept the new reality.
• Beijing continues to claim the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh.
• But the arguments with China are now mostly political. After instigating trouble in each other’s territory for a period, Delhi and Beijing are now committed to managing the dispute peacefully, while expanding the broader relationship.
• There is a frequent spike in military tensions, but there has been no shooting war.
• India has had greater success with Bangladesh. Early on in his first term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi seized the opportunities to settle the disputes with Dhaka on the land and maritime boundary inherited from the Partition.

Conclusion

• But unlike Dhaka and Beijing, Rawalpindi is not really prepared for a peaceful resolution. Repeated efforts by Indira Gandhi (1972), Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1999), and Manmohan Singh (2005-07) ended in failure. The inherent difficulty of negotiation has been compounded by Pakistan’s use of terrorism and Kashmir’s ambiguous political status within the Indian Union.
• In confronting Pakistan’s terrorism and reorganising the political status of Kashmir, the Modi government has set a new policy template.
• The key to its success lies in finding early political reconciliation within Kashmir and persuading the Pakistan army that its interests are better served by stable, peaceful and legitimate frontier with India.

When Article 370 was imposed in Jammu & Kashmir?

• Article 370 was included in the Indian Constitution on October 17 1949, as a ‘temporary provision’ which exempts Jammu and Kashmir from the Indian Constitution.
• It allows it to draft its own Constitution and restrict the Indian Parliament’s legislative powers in the state. In short, it accorded special status to the state, giving the J&K legislature free rein to draft its own laws, except in the areas of communications, defence, finance, and foreign affairs. As a result, Jammu and Kashmir had its own constitution, flag, and penal code.
• The applicability of the provisions of the Constitution regarding this State was accordingly, to be in nature of an interim arrangement. This was the substance of the provision embodied in Art. 370 of the Constitution of India.
• This substance of Article 370, which granted it special status, has been abrogated, although the article still exists in the Constitution. 

Article 35A

• Article 35A is a provision incorporated in the Constitution giving the Jammu and Kashmir Legislature a carte blanche to decide who all are ‘permanent residents’ of the State and confer on them special rights and privileges in public sector jobs, acquisition of property in the State, scholarships and other public aid and welfare.
• The provision mandates that no act of the legislature coming under it can be challenged for violating the Constitution or any other law of the land.
• Article 35A was incorporated into the Constitution in 1954 by an order of the then President Rajendra Prasad on the recommendation of the Nehru's Cabinet.
• The controversial Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order of 1954 followed the 1952 Delhi Agreement entered into between Nehru and therefore the then Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Sheikh Abdullah, which extended Indian citizenship to the ‘State subjects’ of Jammu and Kashmir.
• The Presidential Order was issued under Article 370 (1) (d) of the Constitution. This provision allows the President to make certain “exceptions and modifications” to the Constitution for the benefit of ‘State subjects’ of Jammu and Kashmir.
• So, Article 35A was added to the Constitution as a sworn statement of the special consideration the Indian government accorded to the ‘permanent residents’ of Jammu and Kashmir.

Where changes had been introduced after abrogation of Article 370?

• People, as well as investors outside Jammu and Kashmir, can now purchase land in the Union Territory (UT) as the Centre has notified new land laws for the region.
• Under the newly introduced J&K Development Act, the term “permanent resident of the State” as a criterion has been “omitted”, paving the way for investors outside J&K to invest in the UT.
• Under the ‘transfer of land for the purpose of promotion of healthcare or education’, the government may now allow the transfer of land.
• According to amendments made to “The Jammu & Kashmir Land Revenue Act, Samvat, 1996”, only agriculturists of J&K can purchase agricultural land.
• No sale, gift, exchange, or mortgage of the land shall be valid in favour of a person who is not an agriculturist.
• No land used for agriculture purposes shall be used for any non-agricultural purposes except with the permission of the district collector.
• Under a new provision, an Army officer not below the rank of Corps Commander can declare an area as “Strategic Area” within a local area, only for direct operational and training requirements.

• Over 4 lakh people in Jammu and Kashmir have been issued domicile certificates official document to prove that a person is a resident of a particular state/Union Territory.
• A significant proportion has been given out to those who despite living or serving in the state for years were not considered the residents of the state due to the provisions of Artice 35A, which now stands repealed.

Job vacancies:

• Over 10,000 vacancies at all the levels have been identified for recruitment in various departments in the first phase.
• Notably, the administrative council has approved a simple and efficient procedure for filling up of class IV vacancies.

Reservation:

• The Union Territory administration has decided to provide reservation to Pahari-speaking people (4%) and economically weaker sections (10%).
• So far, the reservation was available only to people living in villages on the Line of Control, but it has been extended to those living on the international border, benefiting nearly 70,000 families.

7th pay commission salary:

• More than three lakh Jammu and Kashmir government employees are now getting benefits under the 7th Central Pay Commission.

Big projects:

• The world’s highest railway bridge over river Chenab in Jammu and Kashmir will be ready by next year and is expected to connect the Valley with the rest of India by train for the first time by 2022.
• The bridge, which has a central span of 467 metres, is being built at a height of 359 metres from the bed level.
• Work on Shahpur-Kandi, an electricity and irrigation project hanging for five decades, has started.
• The Ujh project has been fast-tracked.
• The metro rail is on its way to Srinagar and Jammu.

Welfare schemes:

• The government introduced an array of insurances schemes including the Atal Pension Yojana has also been introduced in the newly carved Union Territory.
• The Centre launched 85 people-oriented development schemes, like PM-KISAN, PM-KISAN-Pension, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and Stand-Up India in Jammu and Kashmir.

Farmers:

• The central government has approved a nearly Rs 6,000 crore multi-purpose project to provide uninterrupted water for irrigation to farmers in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district and to produce power.

• The government granted a package of Rs 80,000 crore for development works in Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory.
• It will include the revival of the schemes pending for decades.
• The package would help establish the educational institutions like IIT, IIM and AIIMS.
• New release of funds will also help in the development of road transport, energy and irrigation schemes.

Who has filed these petitions?

• A wide range of lawyers, activists, politicians and retired civil servants are among the petitioners.
• They include advocates M L Sharma, Soayib Qureshi, Muzzafar Iqbal Khan, Rifat Ara Butt and Shakir Shabir; National Conference Lok Sabha MPs Mohammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi, CPI(M) leader Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami, the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference, Kashmiri artist Inder Salim, and journalist Satish Jacob.
• Also among the petitioners are Radha Kumar, a former member of the Home Ministry’s Group of Interlocutors for J&K, Hindal Haidar Tyabji, a former Chief Secretary of J&K, retired Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak, retired Major General Ashok Kumar Mehta, Amitabha Pande, a former Secretary to the Inter State Council of the Government of India, and Gopal Pillai, a former Union Home Secretary.
• Former IAS officer Shah Faesal, activist Shehla Rashid, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, and the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association have also petitioned the Supreme Court.
• The petitions challenge the Presidential Orders of August 5 and 6, 2019, as well as The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
• The August 5 order — Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019 — passed in exercise of the power under Article 370(1)(d) of the Constitution, superseded the 1954 Presidential Order that introduced Article 35A (which empowers the state of Jammu and Kashmir to define who is a permanent resident and make special laws for them) into the Constitution.
• The Order, which said the provisions of the Constitution of India shall apply to J&K, added that references to the Sadar-i-Riyasat and the Government of J&K shall be construed as including references to the Governor of J&K acting on the advice of his Council of Ministers, and reference to Constituent Assembly of J&K shall be construed as reference to Legislative Assembly of J&K.
• The August 6 Presidential Order revoked the special status granted to J&K under Article 370.
• The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 reorganised the state of J&K into the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and UT of Ladakh.
• A few petitions also challenge the constitutional validity of Article 370 and Article 35A.
• One petition challenges the delimitation exercise being carried out in J&K, saying it violates the right to equality.

• Due process
• The process of revocation of Article 370, which ties the state with India, needed the approval of J&K’s Constituent Assembly. In the absence of such an assembly, it can be removed with the concurrence of the state legislative assembly. But the assembly does not exist at the moment either, and the notification suggests that it was the Governor’s concurrence that was obtained to render the provisions irrelevant. This is clearly not sufficient.
• The process has been pushed through without consultations with Kashmir’s political leaders, who have been under detention.
• Further, the reorganisation of states requires the consent of the state assembly concerned.
• In this case, J&K has been bifurcated, and statehood diluted to UT status, without any deliberations in the assembly.

• It says that before parliament can consider a bill that diminishes the area of a state or changes its name, the bill must be “referred by the President to the Legislature of that State for expressing its views thereon”.
• This is an essential safeguard of India’s federal system and has clearly not been followed in this case.
• In Parliament, the Home Minister invoked that since the J&K assembly was dissolved and the state is under Central rule, it is parliament that gets to exercise the prerogatives of the assembly.
• This move will strain India’s social fabric not only in its impact on Jammu and Kashmir but also in the portents it holds for federalism, parliamentary democracy and diversity.
• The Centre’s abrupt move disenfranchised people on a matter that directly affects their life and sentiments.

Kashmiris seek greater democracy

• Like all Indian citizens, Kashmiris seek greater democracy.
• Elements keen to destabilize India would seek to build a narrative that Delhi is taking away powers from the local level. It is important that the process of turning the state into a UT does not lead to alienation.

Deepen communal and religious lines

• While Ladakhi Buddhists, for instance, are now celebrating the fulfilment of their long-pending demand for Union Territory status, the voices of Kargilis who are still under a strict curfew are yet to be heard.
• They may not support this decision because ‘a Union Territory without a legislature’ not only negates the idea of decentralisation of power to the grassroots (the undergirding principle of the autonomous hill council) but could well lead to a shifting of the loci of power to Leh, resulting in losing whatever gains they have assiduously made over the years.

Instrument of Accession

• In Kashmir’s Instrument of Accession in Clause 5, Raja Hari Singh, ruler of J&K, explicitly mentioned that the terms of “my Instrument of Accession cannot be varied by any amendment of the Act or of Indian Independence Act unless such amendment is accepted by me by an Instrument supplementary to this Instrument”.
• Clause 7 said “nothing in this Instrument shall be deemed to commit me in any way to acceptance of any future constitution of India or to fetter my discretion to enter into arrangements with the Government of India under any such future constitution”.
• Originally it was India’s stated policy that wherever there was a dispute on accession, it should be settled in accordance with the wishes of the people rather than a unilateral decision of the ruler of the princely state.
• In India’s acceptance of the IoA, Lord Mountbatten stated that “it is my Government’s wish that as soon as law and order have been restored in Kashmir and her soil is cleared of the invader, the question of the State’s accession be settled by a reference to the people”. 

Elections in Jammu and Kashmir were delayed

• The three independent observers appointed by the Election Commission — to assess the readiness for assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir — are learnt to have conveyed to the poll panel that the situation is conducive for elections immediately after Lok Sabha polls.
• Former MP Karan Singh, son of Maharaja Hari Singh, wrote in An Examined Life: “The right-wing seems to resent that J&K carries a special status. That has always surprised me. We are a great country, we should be large-hearted. J&K came to India under complex and difficult circumstances. Now after all these years to ask why it holds a special position is baffling. It will always be special because it was born out of a special historical event and subsequent political developments. In England they have all sorts of governing systems…, we should feel so lucky that J&K, a Muslim-majority state became a part of India despite the religion-led Partition. Cherish that; relish that; honour that.”
• In November 1963, in a debate in Parliament, when Hari Vishnu Kamath argued that Kashmir was “not fully” integrated, Nehru asserted that it was, indeed, “fully integrated” with India. He said: “The House will remember that we have some restrictions with respect to NEFA and other places; outsiders cannot buy land. This is also in some other districts, the hill districts of Assam. This is to protect them.”
• Looking at these arguments from the past, the people, the local political parties in Jammu and Kashmir and the political parties in India should have been taken into confidence for bringing about an end to legislation that was indeed the bridge between India and the state of Jammu and Kashmir.