Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah elevated himself to the stature of a statesman when he refused to engage the Union government legally on the question of statehood and instead made it a moral question. He hopes that the Union territory status for J&K is a temporary phase and that the Union government will fulfil its promise of restoring its statehood, but it is for the Union government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah to decide how to respond now.
Mr Abdullah indeed has a legal argument if he wants to use it. The Constitution envisages India as a Union of states even while authorising Parliament to make alterations. However, it requires only a preliminary understanding of the constitutional principles to know that the proviso which authorises the formation of Union Territories should be used with utmost discretion in keeping with the spirit of the federal principles of the Constitution.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court dodged the question when it was called upon to adjudicate on the law that bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir and divided it into two Union territories. The court’s refusal to decide the merit of a government action with long standing ramifications was a disservice it did to the Constitution and the people of India. Its expression of confidence that statehood will be returned to Jammu and Kashmir as soon as possible has been proved false. As pointed out by Mr Abdullah, one year is sufficient time for the government to act. Both the action and inaction of the government as well as the court’s silence can still be questioned before the judiciary.
Yet Mr Abdullah has reiterated the non-confrontational attitude he displayed while taking over as chief minister. Simply going to court will be a fight, he said, and insisted that a fight should never be the first option; “it should be the last option”. He trusts the Prime Minister and the home minister, who have time and again promised the return of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. He also believes that the reference to the restoration or statehood to J&K at the earliest in the Supreme Court order will have some bearing on the decision of the Union government. In short, the National Conference and its CM have no plans to fight the Centre on this count.
Now that the ball has been lobbed to its court, the Union government must ponder over its next course of action. The NDA government has a moral obligation to the people of Jammu and Kashmir who have again reposed their faith in the Constitution and democratic practices to cast their vote in large numbers. They have the desire to become part of the larger India story and become recipients of the democratic dividend.
Scrapping of Article 370 was an item on the BJP’s poll manifesto for several decades. Now that it has been done and dusted, the party owes it to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and to the nation as a whole to take the steps that should follow logically. Blaming Article 370 for the ills of Jammu and Kashmir is one thing, and helping it come out of its dark period and integrate itself with the rest of the country is quite another. It is now up to the Union government to make this possible by making good on the promises it has made in the past.
