Amid din, J&K assembly passes resolution on special status

J&K assembly passed a resolution to restore its special status amid protests from BJP, highlighting ongoing tensions over the 2019 revocation of Article 370.

The Jammu & Kashmir assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution seeking the restoration of the region’s special status amid ruckus as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators tore copies of the document, stormed the well of the House, and raised slogans against the speaker.

Amid din, J&K assembly passes resolution on special status

J&K deputy chief minister and National Conference (NC) leader Surinder Choudhary moved the resolution, which called upon the “Government of India to initiate dialogue with elected representatives” to bring back the region’s special status, scrapped in 2019.

“This legislative assembly reaffirms the importance of the special status and constitutional guarantees, which safeguarded the identity, culture, and rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and expresses concern over their unilateral removal. This assembly emphasises that any process for restoration must safeguard both national unity and the legitimate aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” the resolution said.

In August 2019, the Centre revoked Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave special status to the region, and bifurcated the erstwhile state into two UTs — J&K with an assembly and Ladakh without one. On December 11 last year, the Supreme Court upheld the revocation of Article 370.

The campaign in the recently held J&K assembly elections was dominated by issues of Article 370 and the region’s autonomy, with the National Conference-led alliance and other regional parties calling for its restoration and the BJP hailing its revocation. The NC won 42 out of the 90 seats in the polls and its ally Congress won six. With the support of six MLAs from Congress, one MLA from pre-poll ally CPI(M), one from the Aam Aadmi Party, and five independents, the NC-led coalition reached the tally of 55. The BJP has 28 members in the House.

Article 370, which came into effect in October 1949, granted Kashmir autonomy of internal administration, allowing it to make its own laws in all matters except finance, defence, foreign affairs and communications. The key feature of Article 370 was that the Central laws passed by Parliament did not automatically apply to the erstwhile State of J&K, and it was the right of the state legislature to approve them by passing a parallel act. Article 35A, a further provision added to Article 370 in 1954, empowered state lawmakers to ensure special rights and privileges for permanent residents of the state. Last year, A Constitution bench of the Supreme Court unanimously endorsed the Union government’s August 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu & Kashmir, calling the move the “culmination of the process of integration” of the erstwhile state into the Union of India.

When the House convened on Wednesday, Choudhary moved the resolution for passage, prompting a protest from BJP members.

“We reject the resolution. The business given to us was that the discussion is on the Lieutenant governor’s address. The [revocation of Article 370] has been passed by the biggest temple of democracy in the country [Parliament],” leader of opposition and senior BJP leader Sunil Sharma said.

The NC objected to Sharma’s remarks, leading to chaos in the assembly as leaders of other parties also started shouting slogans. BJP members tore the copies of the resolution and threw it into the well of the House as the proceedings came to a halt.

Amid the din, speaker Abdul Rahim Rather said that he will put the resolution to vote if the BJP did not allow discussions on it. “If the opposition members do not want to speak, I will put it [resolution] to vote,” he said. As the ruckus continued, the speaker put the resolution to voice vote and it was passed amid the BJP’s opposition. As soon as the resolution was passed, BJP members stormed the well of the House, prompting the speaker to adjourn the proceedings for 15 minutes.

Chief minister Omar Abdullah, who was present in the assembly, hailed the passage of the resolution. “The assembly has done its job. I will only say this much,” he said.

The National Conference said that with the passage of the resolution, it has fulfilled one of the key promises of its manifesto.

“Fulfilling its another manifesto promise, the JKNC government led by the chief minister Omar Abdullah passes a resolution against snatching of our constitutional guarantees and special status. We now know - J&K refuses the decisions taken on August 5, 2019,” it posed on X.

The Congress also hailed the resolution, saying that it reflected the sentiments of the people of the region.

“After the Hon’ble Supreme Court verdict, this is the first democratic expression of the people of J&K reflecting the aspirations of the people. There should be no reason for the central government to deny rights and protection to the people of J&K that are already in vogue in many other parts of the country,” the party’s state unit president, Tariq Hameed Karra, said in a statement.

The first assembly session of the UT of J&K began on Monday with People’s Democratic Party (PDP) MLA Waheed ur Rehman Para moving a resolution against the revocation of Article 370, leading to chaos in the House with chief minister Omar Abdullah denouncing the move as irrelevant. The PDP has three MLAs in the assembly. What happened to this resolution?

“We believe the language of this resolution could have been better. There is no condemnation of abrogation of Article 370 in this resolution.They (NC) talk about holding dialogue for restoration of the special status. What is the dialogue for? Do they have any doubt that what happened on August 5, 2019 was wrong? I would say it was a half-hearted effort,” PDP president and former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti said.

The BJP, however, continued with its protest, alleging that the resolution was prepared “in collusion with the speaker”. “The mandate (of voters) was in favour of abrogation of Article 370 because we (BJP) got 26% votes while NC got 23%. I want to tell Kashmir-centric parties that their hegemony is over,” Sharma said and hit out at the speaker for acting “as an NC leader”.

When the House reassembled, BJP MLAs began raising slogans against the speaker, accusing him of bias. “We have reports that you (speaker) called a meeting of ministers yesterday and drafted the resolution yourself,” the LoP said. The speaker, however, rejected the allegation and told the BJP MLAs to take their seat as “enough is enough”. As the ruckus continued, Rather adjourned the House again for an hour.

The chaos continued when the House assembled again, with BJP leaders raising slogans “Speaker go back”, and “take back illegal resolution”.

“If you don’t have confidence in me, bring a no confidence motion,” the speaker said and adjourned the House till Thursday.

The BJP said that it will not allow the House to function till the resolution is withdrawn.

“This is an illegal resolution and until they roll it back, we will continue our protest and not allow the proceedings of the House. They will have to roll it back and then we will debate it,” Sharma said.