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10-11-2024
Bureau Report
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly backed his government’s contentious 2019 decision to revoke the partial autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, days after the territory’s newly elected lawmakers sought its restoration.
“Only the constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar will operate in Kashmir… No power in the world can restore Article 370 (partial autonomy) in Kashmir,” Modi said, referring to one of the founding fathers of the Indian constitution.
Modi was speaking at a state election rally in the western state of Maharashtra, where Ambedkar was from.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government revoked partial autonomy in 2019 and split the state into the two federally administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, a move that was opposed by many political groups in the Himalayan region.
Jammu and Kashmir held its first local election in a decade in September and October and the newly-elected lawmakers passed a resolution this week seeking the restoration.
Jammu and Kashmir’s ruling National Conference party had promised in its election manifesto that it would restore the partial autonomy, although the power to do so lies with Modi’s federal government.
Jammu and Kashmir’s new lawmakers can legislate on local issues like other Indian states, except matters regarding public order and policing. They will also need the approval of the federally-appointed administrator on all policy decisions that have financial implications.
Under the system of partial autonomy, Kashmir had its own constitution and the freedom to make laws on all issues except foreign affairs, defence and communications.
The troubled region, where separatist militants have fought security forces since 1989, is India’s only Muslim-majority territory.
It has been at the centre of a territorial dispute with Pakistan since the neighbors gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Kashmir is claimed in full but ruled in part by both India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars over the region.
Newly-elected lawmakers in India’s Jammu and Kashmir territory passed a resolution day before yesterday demanding New Delhi restore the partial autonomy of the Himalayan region, a contentious move Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is likely to reject.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s partial autonomy in 2019, splitting the state into the two federally administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
The decision was opposed by opposition parties, and many people were detained in 2019 to forestall a backlash against the shock move.
Modi’s government also imposed months of curbs on communications in the highly sensitive Kashmir Valley, where tens of thousands have been killed in a decades-long insurgency against Indian rule.
On Wednesday, Jammu and Kashmir’s newly-elected ruling alliance passed the resolution seeking the restoration, despite protests by BJP lawmakers.
“This legislative assembly re-affirms the importance of the special status and constitutional guarantees which safeguarded the identity, culture and rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and expresses concern over their unilateral removal,” it said.
