Dr. Jitender Singh, our own man in the Union Council of Ministers, raised the issue of article 370 on his very first day in the office. Since then, everyone who has a voice to carry, or a pen to wield – from Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti; from influential editor of a national daily to the neighbourhood tea-stall intellectual – is harping about it. The din is baffling. What makes article 370 of Indian constitution such a hot topic?
‘It is “full of sound and fury…” as a famous Videshi poet said in a different context,’ remarked Kaga Bhushundiji. ‘But tell me,’ he enquired in the same breath, ‘why do you call Dr Jitender Singh “our own man”? Is he related to you in any manner?’
Kaga Bhushundi Speakth
Suman K Sharma
‘Nothing of the sort, Kagaji. It is only that he is a state-subject and MP from Udhampur. Who else is better suited than he to voice our concerns at the national level?’
‘A state-subject! You have answered your own question, son. Maharajas are gone, but you people still take pride in being called their subjects. Article 370 comes off as a quirk of its times. If only Maharaja Hari Singh had not dithered and dawdled to accede to India till the bitter end, if only the newly turned Pakistani rulers had not arbitrarily sent overt and covert forces to J&K, if only Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru had not chosen to play along with Hari Singh’s fantasy of a sovereign state – there would have been no need for article 370.’
‘I guess you are right. But then how would India have met the special requirements of our state, Kagaji?’
‘Don’t arrogate to yourself the status of singularity, my son. In any case, your country’s constitution has provisions to cater to the special needs of states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, and Goa. J&K would also have been suitably provided for. ‘
‘But as a people don’t we have the right to claim our identity as well?’
‘What identity? Whose identity, hain? Do you mean only the Kashmiri-speaking Muslims living in the Valley are the be-all and end-all of the whole of Jammu and Kashmir? There are Laddakhis, there are the non-Kashmiri speaking people of Kargil and Kupwara, then the Kashmiri pundits outside the Valley, the Bhadarwahis, the Punchhis, the people living in Rajouri and the adjoining hills, the Dogras….What of them?
‘But in the end we did get article 370, and with it our own constitution, our own flag, our own penal code….’
‘Yes, you did. But don’t ever forget that the very preamble and section 2 of the state constitution categorically affirm that J&K is an integral part of Bharat. Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, Omar Abdullah’s grandfather, reaffirmed this in his 1974-pact with your Pradhan Mantri, Indira Gandhi.’
‘Sometimes I feel that the statute has served its purpose. What do you say to that, Kagaji?’
‘Now that you ask me, it reminds me of a Panchtantra story. In a jungle, a jackal fell upon a war-drum (nagaada). The big thing made fearful sounds when the curious beast pawed at its face. But one forceful strike by the jackal and the tight skin of the drum gave way:
“Its voice was fierce,” (said the jackal) ,
I thought it stuffed
With fat, so crept within;
And there I did not find a thing
Except some wood and skin.”
‘May be you are right. But we cannot trifle with it, rooted as it is in a sovereign commitment of one government to another.’
‘If you people are so fond of such a token of distinctiveness, keep it by all means. But it’s time you reflected upon the overall gains – material or imagined – that you derive from article 370. It sets you apart in Bharat, but at the same time, it creates a false notion in the minds of the impressionable youth in the state that being of India they are somehow other than Indian. It prevents settlement of outsiders, but alongside, it also hinders investments from outside the state. It grants you the privileges of a state domicile but debars you from certain benefits extended by Bharat sarkar. ‘And most important of all: 2014 cannot be 1947.’
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