‘Nothing Has Changed’: Kashmiri Leaders On Six Years Of Art 370 Revocation

Former minister and People's Democratic Front president Hakeem Yaseen has not forgotten the intervening night of August 4 and 5 in 2019. While the central government planned to withdraw the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, assured to it by Article 370 of the Constitution, Yaseen was suddenly yanked away and locked up.

His detention lasted over nine months. Another colleague and former minister, Syed Basharat Bukhari, was placed under house arrest that lasted longer than a year. He emerged free in September 2020.

Six years on, while Kashmiri leaders say not much has changed since August 5, 2019, Bharatiya Janata Party leaders applaud the move, claiming it curbed militancy and stopped stone pelting.

On Tuesday, the PDP said it was prevented from taking out a protest march from its Srinagar office, while the Congress party also said that the administration foiled its protest march.

The Congress had planned a dharna at the Maulana Azad road in city centre Lal Chowk, which it wanted to block as a mark of protest. However, said a party leader, a heavy contingent of police personnel was deployed at the gate that did not allow them to move out. Senior Congress leader and former Minister G A Mir, said, "The Congress party has always empowered people, and we are the only party that can provide constitutional safeguards to Jammu and Kashmir."

The ruling National Conference party's vice president and Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, said earlier that his party hoped that the central government would legislate in this session of Parliament to restore Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, which was also revoked on August 5, 2019. Abdullah's National Conference said the police barred its leaders from holding a protest march on the anniversary and from stepping out of their offices. Party workers were also prevented from joining the demonstration in Srinagar.

Led by NC Kashmir president Showkat Ahmad Mir, MLAs and senior leaders assembled at the party headquarters, Nawa-i-Subah. They raised slogans against the Centre's decisions taken on August 5, 2019, and called for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

PTI said the party leaders raised slogans like "Black laws are not acceptable" and "Restore Articles 370 and 35A", the protesters tried to march towards the Lal Chowk city centre but were not allowed to step out of the party office complex by police.

NC state spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar told PTI police did not allow the party leaders to move out and even "pushed some leaders".

"Our MLA Salman Sagar was injured in the melee. He suffered foot injuries," Dar was quoted by the agency.

This anniversary of the abrogation, with Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh being carved out as separate Union Territories, also marks political one-upmanship among the region's parties, especially on the demand for statehood.

Opposition parties, including the PDP, have criticised Abdullah for adopting a soft approach towards the BJP and for failing to deliver on developmental promises. However, the NC has blamed the PDP for the current political situation, saying that if the party had not joined the government with the BJP, things wouldn't have stood as they are now.

All major political parties in Kashmir, including the Congress, PDP, and ruling NC, have denounced the August 5, 2019, decision to scrap Article 370, which had not only made it possible for Jammu and Kashmir to have a separate flag and even constitution but also to reject any application of central laws to the erstwhile state.

BJP leaders have said that the progressive central laws have been extended to the Union Territory now, but local leaders have seen reducing Jammu and Kashmir to a UT as a downgrade and have unanimously sought the restoration of statehood.

PDP leader Basharat Bukhariri said there was nothing to celebrate about August 5, when Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded to the UT.

"How can one celebrate August 5, 2019? There was a pact between Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi under which the erstwhile state got the special status, and that pact was not honoured," said Bukhari.

He added that the PDP observed a blackout yesterday to "democratically express our view on the issue." He said the issue was not only about restoring statehood but also about " restoring the constitutional safeguards that Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed prior to the revocation of Article 370."

Adding to this, PDP chief spokesperson, Mehboob Beg, said that not much has changed even after six years of the abrogation of Article 370. "People continue to remain languishing in jails outside Jammu and Kashmir. And there is no peace; the gunfights are continuing. The encounters with the militants are more deadly now."

"It is not the peace that existed during the tenure of chief minister Mufti Mohammad Syed, when the roads with Pakistan were opened, when the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, said that the country was ready to look beyond UN resolution for a solution to the Kashmir problem and proposed the four-point formula," he added.

BJP sees August 5 as a significant day that paved the way for lasting peace.

However, BJP leader Ashwani Chrungoo said that the situation in Kashmir has improved after the abrogation of Article 370. "There is a peace now and it is due to the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that the Kashmiri pandits, who faced a genocide, are hoping that they will be able to return to the Valley and settle down in a homeland."