In an unprecedented move, the Centre has scrapped Article 370 of the Indian Constitution which gives autonomous status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah proposed in the Rajya Sabha to revoke Article 370 of the Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir amid uproar by opposition members.
Shah said: “I am presenting the resolution to revoke Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir except the first clause 370 (1).”
President Ram Nath Kovind has signed the notification to scrap Article 370.
The Government has planned the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir as Union Territory. According to the plan, Ladakh will be a Union Territory without an Assembly.
Defending the scrapping of Article 370, Shah said that under the umbrella of Article 370, three families looted J-K for years.
The government, which listed four bills and legislative proposals before the Rajya Sabha, intends to get the resolution passed by the end of the day.
The announcement comes on the backdrop of a Cabinet meeting at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg.
The high-voltage meeting was attended by Home Minister Amit Shah and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval among other top leaders.
The announcement comes on a day when former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti and Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference chairman Sajad Lone were placed under house arrest as restrictions were imposed across the Valley.
The state administration has imposed Section 144 in Srinagar, as well as in Jammu, while mobile internet services have been snapped.
All educational institutions have been closed till further orders and all Kashmir University exams have been postponed without specifying the next date.
Earlier on Sunday too, Amit Shah presided over a high-level security meeting which was attended by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief Arvind Kumar, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Samant Kumar Goel and senior Home Ministry officials.
With dramatic security build-up across the state for the past two weeks, speculations were rife that the Centre may have plans to scrap Article 35A, which gives exclusive rights to the state’s residents in government jobs and land, or Article 370 which gives autonomous status to the state.
Last week, over 28,000 additional troops of paramilitary forces were reportedly deployed in the Kashmir valley.
Repealing Article 370 and Article 35A has long been one of the core BJP promises and the demand for its abrogation had risen after the Pulwama terror attack.
Article 370 grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir and limits Parliament’s power to make laws concerning the state. It was incorporated in India’s Constitution in October 1949. It also gives power to the state legislature to define Jammu and Kashmir’s residents and their privileges.
Article 35A was proclaimed by President Rajendra Prasad on 14 May 1954 on the advice of the Jawaharlal Nehru government to empower the Jammu and Kashmir legislature to define the permanent residents of the state and their entitlements. It was drawn from the Delhi Agreement of 1952 and from Article 370 that confers special status to the state.