The Abrogation Of Article 370 : A Further Step Towards Hindu Rashtra?
Commensurate with the long standing demand of Sangh Parivar for abrogation of article 370, the BJP led NDA government has modified the article in such a way that the state of Jammu and Kashmir has lost all special right that remained in article 370. Not only that, the state has been bifurcated into two parts, one being Jammu and Kashmir, and other being Ladakh, and both have been relegated to the status of Union territories, thereby curtailing the right of Kashmiri people to have its own elected state government. All these have been done with utmost secrecy. The decision has been forced upon the Kashmiri people against their will and the government had to convert Kashmir into a prison before taking the decision. Almost 20000 more troops were sent to Kashmir, which already had a high proportion of Army presence compared with its population, all the leaders of opposition political parties were either arrested or interned and all communication channels from Kashmir to outside world were snapped. The decision of the central government is another example in a series of betrayal of the rulers of India with the Kashmiri people.
BJP and Sangh Parivar have long been propagating that the article 370 has been included in the constitution to appease the Kashmiri people, because they belong to Muslim community by religion. It should be acknowledged that they have been successful to convince many with their lie. Many people, especially from Hindu community have felt that 'a historical wrong has been undone'.
It is a lie that the article 370 was added to the constitution to appease the Muslim people of Kashmir. Rather, it was added by betraying the people of Kashmir. When the state was added to the Indian union, it was promised that independence on the affairs of the state will be given to them. The rulers of India were forced to give that promise due to the then situation of Jammu and Kashmir.
Before partition of India, the state of Jammu and Kashmir was a princely state and like any 565 princely state it was independent from British India. When British partitioned India just after midnight of 14th August, 1947, and formed two dominions, India and Pakistan, the state of Jammu and Kashmir had borders with both the dominions. Though its ruler was a Dogra Hindu king Hari Singh, the people of Kashmir were predominantly Muslim. The state would not have joined India, if the Kashmiri people had decided otherwise. But, due to the anti-feudal struggle of the Kashmiri people, they opposed the communal politics of Muslim League tooth and nail. They did not subscribe to the two-nation theory of Muslim League and joined India. They even fought against the invaders side by side with the Indian Army in the Kashmir war in the aftermath of partition. It should also be mentioned that the then king of Jammu and Kashmir was dillydallying with decision of joining either India or Pakistan. But, he was forced to sign a treaty of accession when the tribal people invaded Kashmir and was on the verge of entering Srinagar. The accession treaty was signed within a short notice to enable the Indian Army to enter Kashmir. The secretary of Ministry of States under Ballavbhai Patel and closely related to the incidents of integration of princely states with India later reminisced, "He (Mountbatten) further expressed the strong opinion that, in view of the composition of the population, accession should be conditional on the will of the people being ascertained by a plebiscite after the raiders had been driven out of the State and law and order had been restored. This was readily agreed to by Nehru and other ministers." (The story of integration of India, VP Menon) Due to the war, the issue of Kashmir was referred to the UN and the rulers of India were forced to give the promise of a plebiscite to take the opinion of the people on the accession. The promise of plebiscite was again reiterated by Prime Minister Nehru in radio broadcast. Due to the history of Jammu and Kashmir, the rulers of India first promised in the treaty of accession that the internal affairs of Kashmir will be controlled by the Kashmiri people and only the subjects under Defence, Communication, and Foreign affairs will be governed by the Central Government. The same thing was reiterated even in the Delhi Agreement of 1952, between the Central Government and the Government of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It was stated in the agreement that "sovereignty in all matters other than those specified in the Instrument of Accession continues to reside in the state, the Government of India agreed that, while the residuary powers of legislature vested in the centre in respect of all states other than Jammu and Kashmir, in case of the latter they vested in the state itself"
However, as soon as the state joined with India, the rulers of India gradually backtracked on its promises. The plebiscite was never held. The independence was curtailed from the beginning. Article 370 was made in that direction. Though in that article, it was decided that Kashmir will have a separate constitution and only the central acts concerning the above-mentioned three will be extended to the state, it also had another clause by which the central acts and provisions of Indian constitution can be extended to the state with the concurrence of the state government. Throwing the basic democratic principles to the wind, it was also written in the article that the opinion of Governor of the state might be considered as the concurrence of the state government. First, the concurrence of the people of the state was substituted by the concurrence of the state government and then the concurrence of state government was replaced by the concurrence of the Governor. How can the opinion of the governor, an appointee of the Central Government, and almost always a person from outside the state, be the opinion of people of the state is beyond all logic. Using that provision, the powers given under the article 370 was gradually eroded by presidential orders under the successive central governments under Congress. According to some sources, 50 such presidential orders have been issued and by those orders 260 out of 395 provisions of Indian constitution were extended to the state, rest being incorporated in the constitution of Jammu and Kashmir. So, in sum and substance, the powers originally given with the article 370 were eroded long ago. So, it can be said that the article 370 was incorporated not to appease the Kashmiri people because they are Muslims, but without giving such rights it would not have been possible for the Indian rulers to annex the state. But, from the very beginning they reneged on their promises and betrayed the Kashmiri people all along. And that have been done by the might of Indian state, especially Indian Army. Sheikh Abdullah, the first prime minister of J & K was arrested and kept in jail for 11 long years. Indian Army was posted to quell any protests and they did it brutally.
It is also not true that only the state of Jammu and Kashmir was given special rights. The rulers of India applied the same policy to annex the North-Eastern parts. Initially the Nagas, the Manipuris, were given promises of independence which were later reneged on. The discontentment of the Naga people was so widespread that not a single vote was polled in the election of 1952 and 1957. To quell the discontentment of the people of those regions the Indian state on one hand, used brutal power of the Indian Army and on the other hand gave some rights. Along with article 370, article 371 was incorporated in the constitution which gives some special rights to the people of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram etc. It should be mentioned here though the article gave some rights to the Naga or Mizo people, the same undemocratic clauses were included in the article by which the rights can be curtailed by the Central Government anytime. However, the inclusion of article 371 again proves that article 370 was not incorporated just because the people of Kashmir are predominantly Muslim. But it was included to hoodwink the Kashmiri people in the name of giving some rights to the Kashmiri nationality.
During last seven decades, the successive Central Governments had betrayed the Kashmiri people. Their rights were curtailed. Elections were manipulated. The Kashmiri people were tortured by the Indian Army. The Central funds were looted by the local politicians, who were placed from above in the governmental power, and it was done under the very eyes of the Central Governments. The Central Governments did nothing to arrest this loot, because it was way to bribe and utilize them in their design. The series of betrayal has already alienated the people of Kashmir to a great extent. The present betrayal from the Indian government will further alienate the Kashmiri people and the discontentment will rise further. It is a lie that this step will usher in development in the state, and thereby will provide better job opportunities to the Kashmiri people and improve their standard of life. When in the rest of India, without any hindrance of 370, lakhs of unemployed youth are frantically searching for jobs, when crores of poor people are living in desperate poverty, then to claim that abrogation of article 370 will usher in better future for the Kashmiri people is height of absurdity. But, more importantly, the demand of Kashmiri people is independence, a right to rule their own land, and any vacuous promise of development will not be able to fulfill their urge for independence.
The real reason behind the annexation of these regions is the interest of the big bourgeoisie of India. They needed as large a geographical area as possible to expand their market, to plunder the natural resources of these regions and to have potential source of natural resources under their command and for strategic interests. The ruling parties of India have acted in the interests of the big bourgeoisie and tried to forcibly occupy these regions. Due to this reason, the representatives of the big bourgeoisie generally hailed the abrogation of article 370 as a welcome step. They may also be interested in expanding their businesses in Kashmir and for that the right to buy lands in Kashmir may become handy for them.
Here it should be added that Pakistan has been also trying to further complicate the Kashmir problem by helping a section of youth to raise Islamic Jihad in Kashmir. From the very beginning it considered that it is their right to annex Kashmir to Pakistan as because it is a Muslim majority state. So, they left no stone unturned to occupy Kashmir. Two wars between India and Pakistan has been fought on the issue of Kashmir. However, how were they able to poke their nose in Kashmir, when the people of Kashmir once willingly joined India and even fought war against Pakistan? Is it not due the series of betrayal and oppression of the Indian state which has angered and alienated the people of Kashmir?
Though during the partition period, the Kashmiri people have fought against the communal politics of the Muslim league, later the communal politics have raised their ugly head in Kashmir. The central Governments are primarily responsible for the communal division in Kashmir, but the intervention of Pakistan has also been there and the Islamic fundamentalists also cannot wash their hands off this. This has helped to further the communal division in the rest of the country. By effectively abrogating the article 370, the BJP has further consolidated the communally biased Hindu people to their side and further increased the communal division prevalent in the society. These sections were generally elated by this act of the government and hailed it as an act which no one could take before. It also shows that energized by the verdict of the last election, the BJP will further move on in its campaign to establish Hindu Rashtra in this country.
The opposition parties could not resist the conspiracy of the BJP led Central Government. The real reason behind their failure is the ideological weakness of their politics. The opposition parties of Kashmir, like National conference and PDP, have long been betraying the masses by their politics. Instead of consistently opposing the undemocratic policies of Central Government, they were hand in gloves with the Central governments in curbing the democratic rights of the people of Kashmir. The opposition parties of rest of India also could not resist the step of NDA government. How could they? The Congress party has long eroded the article 370 and the BJP has taken the same route to amend the article. The ideological position of Congress was made open by the support of the abrogation of article 370 by several important leaders of the party in opposition to the diktat of the party high command. The ideological positions of other parties are also weak. They have meekly opposed the way in which step had been taken but could not oppose the step wholeheartedly. Because they cannot oppose the policy of big bourgeoisie ruling classes that forcibly occupy the border regions by oppressing the nationalities inhabiting those regions. This weakness has been reflected in their impotent opposition of the undemocratic step of the NDA government.
The abrogation of article 370 is the logical conclusion of the policy of forcible occupation of Kashmir, which has been started in the interests of the big bourgeoisie by the Congress and concluded by the BJP-led government. The article 370, itself is a betrayal to the people of Kashmir. The real democracy wants that all types of oppressions, small or big, imposed on the nationalities must be eradicated and the policy of forcible occupation should stop altogether. There should be unity of nationalities, on their free will and that will be possible when the unity will be on the basis of right of self-determination of all oppressed nations. The real danger lurking behind the abrogation is the push towards the Hindu Rashtra. The abrogation of article 370 must be opposed, but the restoration of the article cannot be the demand of the proletariat. Because, in itself the article 370 is undemocratic and is a betrayal to the people of Kashmir. We should demand that the policy of forcible occupation of Kashmir and other regions be stopped altogether. We must understand that it is not possible within the present framework under the rule of the big bourgeoisie. Only a peoples' democratic republic under the leadership of working class and on the basis of the unity of working class and peasantry can usher in such a unity where all nationalities will be united on their free will and on the basis of right of secession of the oppressed nationalities. The struggle for such a republic will also be able to resist the conspiracy of the sangh Parivar to install a Hindu Rasthtra in India. The workers and the toiling masses should be awakened for such a struggle ? this is the real task confronting the communists today.
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