Opinion | The full integration of Jammu and Kashmir
Live MintOn Monday, the Indian government moved to withdraw the “special status” conferred on the state of Jammu and Kashmir by Article 370. The abrogation of Article 370, which was incorporated in the Indian Constitution in October 1949, has been a long-held political promise of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has argued that its provisions for autonomy on internal matters have privileged the state’s political elites, harmed the region’s development and prevented the full integration of India’s northern-most state with the rest of the country. Since Article 370 was included in the Constitution’s Part XXI, which deals with “Temporary, Transitional and Special provisions”, the party believes there is no reason for it to exist seven decades after its adoption. It’s worth recalling that Maharaja Hari Singh, the then ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, signed an Instrument Of Accession to India on 27 October 1947, two years before the Article’s inclusion and within days of the state seeking New Delhi’s aid to repulse an invasion by Pakistan-backed militia.