SEEKING the extension of President’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir, Union Home Minister Amit Shah told the Lok Sabha on Friday that Article 370 — which grants special status to the state — is ‘temporary’. He was quoting from the Constitution, wherein the term ‘temporary’ has been used with the Article. This provision has triggered several controversies regarding its merit and the circumstances under which it was inserted into the Constitution when J&K faced aggression from Pakistan’s tribesmen; this had led the last Dogra king of the state, Maharaja Hari Singh, to accede to India for getting the military’s help to repel the invaders. The negotiations for this provision were held between the Centre and the representatives of J&K, led by Kashmir’s towering leader Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.

Over the past few decades, this Article, which entitles the state to have its own constitution, flag and legislature that can pass its own laws — and the Central laws cannot apply to J&K without its concurrence — is deemed as permanent. Some rulings of the Supreme Court have maintained this position. The Kashmiri Muslim community regards the Article as an iconic symbol of its distinct political identity and a matter of collective dignity. Some voices, including that of former CM Omar Abdullah, have said that “If Article 370 goes, the accession of the state into India also collapses.”

The Home Minister has held India’s first PM, Jawaharlal Nehru, responsible for the discrepancy in the Constitution in the form of Article 370. Shah also suggested that the current conflict was an offshoot of this constitutional provision and the ‘fake’ elections held in the 1950s and 1960s. When he reminded the House that it was a temporary provision, the implication was that the Article would go sooner or later as the BJP, which has been demanding its abrogation, has stuck to its stand on the issue. His words were given a supplementary explanation by BJP’s national general secretary in charge of J&K, Ram Madhav, who said on Saturday that “Article 370 will have to go lock, stock and barrel” after fulfilling certain procedures. This has reignited a debate on whether the Article should stay or not, and will bring diverse political outfits in Kashmir under one umbrella to, as they claim, fight for safeguarding the state’s special status.