Four years without Art 370:Normalcy or rights being denied

Important for

Prelims Exam: Art 370, delimitation commission

Mains Exam: Art 370, delimitation commission , challenges and growth

Why in news?

• After a delay of four years, the Supreme Court started hearing the petitions challenging the Centre’s 2019 decision in Jammu & Kashmir of doing away with the special status of the state and dividing it into two union territories namely Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

BACKGROUND

• Governor’s Rule was imposed in J&K on June 19, 2018, after the BJP withdrew support to the coalition government led by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. Under Article 92 of the J&K Constitution, six months of Governor’s Rule was mandatory before the state could be put under President’s Rule.

Govt. stand on Normalcy

• Govt. sighted reasons for claiming normalcy is the new normal in the region in the last four years after the annulment of Article 370.
• More than 350 important laws were amended which resulted in the complete and unambiguous integration of the state’s administration with the Constitution.
• Greater freedom today for the minorities like the Shias, Sufis and Kashmiri Hindus e.g. Muharram procession of the Shias (20-25 per cent of the Valley’s population) which couldn’t be held in Srinagar city after 1988 held recently.
• First-of-its-kind international event this year in Srinagar for G-20 Tourism Working Group Meeting attended by more than 50 international delegates
• More than 200 justices from high courts and the Supreme Court of India met in Srinagar for the first time in May this year.
• The annual “Back to Villages” programme, initiated in 2018, opens up avenues for employment and livelihood at the grassroots level and disbursed loans to more than 50,000 youngsters and women’s self-help groups as part of this programme
• The UT stood first in the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav rankings, pushing Gujarat to the second position.

Historical Reasons

• The Valley was once famous for Shaivism and Sufi shrines like the Raghunath Temple, built by Maharaja Gulab Singh on the banks of river Jhelum in Srinagar in 1835, and the 700-year-old Mangleshwar Bhairav temple in Srinagar, damaged by floods in 2014, are being restored.
• Restoration of 123 temples and Sufi shrines is being undertaken with the specific budgetary allocations.

LEGAL CHALLENGE

• The Constituent Assembly of J&K is no longer existed, having dispersed in 1957, therefore the power of the President to abrogate Art 370 , unless a new Constituent Assembly came into being should ceased to exist.

From separate constitution to the Indian constitution, from statehood to UT .J&K has witnessed the dawn of a new era however even after the constituencies were redrawn District council elections were awaited since past four years which put a major scepticism on govt. policies for the future of Kashmiri youth also there is no clear policy for the formal incorporation of the oust Kashmiri pandit’s in the valley cast a doubt on