There was ruckus in the newly elected Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Monday morning – as it held its first sitting in six years – after People’s Democratic Party lawmaker Wahid Parra tabled an impromptu resolution against the scrapping of Article 370 in August 2019.
Bharatiya Janata Party lawmakers resisted Mr Parra’s resolution, even as the Speaker, Rahim Rather of the ruling National Conference, said he had not yet admitted any such motion.
The BJP-led centre revoked Article 370 five years ago, in a contentious move marked by furious protests from political parties and politicians in Jammu and the Kashmir Valley.
The revocation was challenged in the Supreme Court that, in December last year, ruled the provision a “temporary” one and upheld the central government’s move to scrap it.
Article 370 had given J&K special status and privileges. Post its removal the central government also split the former state into two union territories – that of J&K and, separately, Ladakh.
Restoration of Article 370 was among the key poll planks in last month’s election – the first in J&K in a decade, since the PDP-BJP government broke down and President’s Rule was imposed.
The NC-Congress alliance won the October 8 election; as it turned out, however, the NC did not need support, sweeping 42 of J&K’s 90 elected seats and gaining support from four independent lawmakers, as well as the lone Aam Aadmi Party rep, to cross the majority mark of 48.
However, a day after the NC’s victory was confirmed, Chief Minister-elect Omar Abdullah said expecting Article 370 to be restored by “the people who snatched it will be foolish”. Mr Abdullah, though, stressed that the NC’s position on this would not change. “We have never said that we will remain silent on Article 370 or that Article 370 is not an issue for us now…” he told reporters.
“We will continue to talk on this and hope tomorrow there will be a change of government (and) there will be a new setup with whom we can discuss this and get something for J&K.”
He has, though, said the election result was a clear rejection of the scrapping of Article 370.
The NC leader, however, did call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-led alliance at the centre to restore J&K’s statehood, a promise Mr Modi made in the run-up to the election.
“The Prime Minister is an honourable man,” he had told NDTV, “… and I hope he lives up to his word.” Mr Abdullah rejected the notion that the PM’s promise had been continent on his BJP winning the election. “Nowhere has the BJP ever said – first there will be our government and then statehood. The PM never said that.”
