In a historic announcement, Home Minister Amit Shah has announced in Rajya Sabha that the government has decided to strip Article 370 of the Constitution which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
The government has also decided to bifurcate the state into two Union territories – Jammu and Kashmir, which will have a legislature, and Ladakh, which will be without a legislature.
While the historic announcement would change Kashmir’s destiny, it was as usual not received well by the opposition. The announcement was immediately followed by a massive uproar in the Upper House with opposition MPs protesting in the Well of the House.
Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is currently addressing the House rues that by revoking Article 370 that accords special status to Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP-led government has murdered the Consitution of India. “We stand by the constitution of India…we are willing to give up our lives for the constitution, but we condemn any act against the Constitution,” he says.
Meanwhile, the PDP chief, Mehbooba Mufti, who is currently under preemptive house arrest amid a massive security-built up back in the valley, took to Twitter to criticise the resolution. Condemning the ‘unilateral’ move as ‘illegal and unconstitutional’ and highlighting how this will have catastrophic consequences, Mufti writes that the government of India has failed in keeping its promises in Kashmir.
Mehbooba has earlier warned in a language not dissimilar to Hafiz Saeed (LeT) and Masood Azhar (JeM). She said if Article 370 is abrogated, the whole India would burn; a typical “tukde-tukde gang” delusion.
This was not the first time either. She once tweeted that if Article 370 is scrapped, “Hindustan-waalon, tumhari-dastaan bhi na hogi dastaano mein” (O Indians, history wouldn’t even remember you once existed).
Meanwhile, India celebrates this is a historic day as Modi government has re-written Kashmir’s history. Now, Kashmir will be a part of India without any riders.