Dr. K L Bhatia
District Development Council election results visibly show peoples deep faith in constitutional democracy and progressive development of Jammu Kashmir Union Territory. Therefore, DDC election results should not make Gupkaris to feel proud. Why? This is because of their Et tu, Brute betrayal behavioralism. Gupkaris of all shades and facets have been making anti Indian statements in the past and present habitually to grind their own axe. Their behaviors have never been pro-Indian, pro-Indian Constitution sovereignty, pro-Indian tricolor national flag. Jammu Kashmir was not is not, and will not, be your fiefdom.
How far Gupkar declaration and off and on statements can be a threat to India’s unity and integrity? Without prejudice, the declaration and statements are in no way inspirational spirit for those who put their soul into Indian nation mainstream work rather ignite those contrived minds who believe in secessionism, separatism, terrorism and anti India and her constitution. It should not pervade lest it bloom a damaging product to India’s federal fabric so well woven on the touchstone of mutually friendly reciprocal interdependence on each other and not independent from each other.
The noblesse oblige (loyalties across the border) approach speaks about autochthony character — disloyal to the Indian nation and Indian Constitution.
Their viewpoints seem aberration of any worldview or philosophy since there is incongruity: “Creation is the sign of life, not stagnation or repetition”. — Hegel; Aristotle. The aberration is the replication of abrogated Articles 370, 35A and restoration of pre-August 2019 status quo. The Parliament of India in the exercise of its constituent power is empowered to vary, repeal or add any provision in the textual Constitution of India without changing or destroying its inherent philosophy of basic structure. History stands testimony that Article 370 was not a part of the draft constitution but, however, was inserted in the text of the constitution ostensibly on October 19, 1949. Article 370 had never vested special constitutional status to the then Jammu Kashmir State (now Union Territory); Article 370 was a temporary and transitory provision and could be abrogated through constitutional process. August 5 and 6, 2019 has ushered in a new constitutionalism of future definite in Jammu Kashmir that is a mosaic to achieving the ends of Unity and Integrity of the Indian Nation under the sovereignty of the Constitution of India. August 5 and 6, 2019 will be remembered historic days in the independence history of India and will be written in golden words in the modern history of India since the developments erased the black chapters of 19th October 1949 when Article 370 (306A) was got inserted in the Constitution of India under process and corrected the wrongs of 15th May 1954 when Article 35A was added as a rarest example of invisible hands of invisible State in the Constitution by an Executive Order by overreaching the Constituent powers of the Parliament of India. Now, we have One Nation, One Constitution, And One National Flag. Article 35A has rightly been erased by visible hands of visible State.
New constitutionalism in the Union Territories of Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh brings an end to alliance between democracy and dynasty. Better to work for the well knit fabric of constitutional federalism in the historic wisdom of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel: “our new Constitution is not an alliance between democracies and dynasties, but a real Union of the Indian people based on the basic concept of the sovereignty of the people”.
Lest not forget that we have had witnessed in the then State of Jammu Kashmir maximal government with minimal governance that weakened or minimized federal comity or synergetic federalism. That was a divisive period with least visibility of “creation is the sign of life”; it was a time of stagnation that proved to be “misguided missile with destructive potential”. That period flourished with scams, corruption and accumulation of enmeshed both immovable as well as movable properties within the territory of Jammu Kashmir, other parts of the territory of India by taking the maximum benefit of the provisions of the Indian Constitution to settle in any part of the territory of India by depriving or disallowing the Indians to settle equally within the territory of Jammu Kashmir under the specious pretext of special status, and foreign countries. Under the new constitutionalism, if land scams and other scams are being unearthed, why hangama kyuon barpa hai.
Be it being clear that by the Constitution (Application to Jammu Kashmir) Order, 2019, CO 272, and the Jammu Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019 we are out of the egg shell of ‘to be or not to be’. These are progressive constitutional movements to making India “a vibrant India”, because new constitutionalism is a definite step towards effective constitutional governance, and present a ‘real Union of the Indian people based on the basic concept of the sovereignty of the Constitution of India’. The new constitutionalism strengthens the indestructible union of Indian federalism — a unique concept in the family of constitutionalism.
New Constitutionalism is a progressive step forward to reiterate then Maharaja Hari Singh’s policy statement of 15th July 1946 in earnest perspectives: “…Naturally we are interested in the progress of India as a whole. My views on the subject are well known and on more than one occasion I have given expression to them. They are briefly that we look forward to taking our due place in the new constitutional structure of India, whereby we hope that India will be able to take its proper place as a great nation, one of the brotherhood of nations, and to wield influence in the affairs of the world, thus adding to human civilization those aspects of our great culture which will help to solve the problems of mankind…”
With this background, the glaring defects in the contentious Articles 370 and 35A have disappeared, vanished and departed. As such, those were matters of past history, and past history is dead history inasmuch as dead wood and their soup and sauce have been evaporated with the avtar of new constitutionalism, 2019.
Thus, CO 2019 brings in new constitutionalism; brings an end to the separate constitution of Jammu Kashmir which was otherwise subordinate to the Constitution of India as well as the sovereignty of the Constitution of India; brings the people of Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh within the purview of WE The People Of India as single citizenship as well as domicile of Indian origin; extends and applies The Constitution of India, 1950, as amended from time to time, to Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh; applies in the Union Territories of Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh all Central Laws in order to bring uniformity in the application of Central Laws; repeals all such the then State laws being contra to Constitution of India; evaporates the soup and sauce of misinformation campaign about the legality and constitutionality of Jammu Kashmir’s Accession to India and the separatists’ campaign that had had internal and external dimensions and ramifications; evaporates the soup and sauce of specious claim of special status; seems to be a guarantee to catch up with industrially, economically, educationally developed States and Union Territories. A new era of hope and dispensation has ushered in for Scheduled Tribes community, Balmikis, West Pakistani Refugees. Gender discrimination comes to an end and women and their children get fully protected to right to succession, education. The Right to Education ensures universal education coverage. SCs, OBCs and SEBCs employees get full benefits under the Indian Constitutional schemes as well as Apex Court’s directives.
Thus, results of DDC elections should be carefully nursed: “This is not the end; it is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning”— Sir Winston Churchill.
(The author is Former Dean Faculty of Law and founder Director The Law School, University of Jammu)
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