India’s Past Holds The Key

Pursuant to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019, the bifurcation of the erstwhile state into the two Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, has come into effect. For the change in governance with a Lieutenant Governor and the legislative assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, it has been expressly stated, “On and from the appointed day, the provisions contained in article 239A, which are applicable to “Union Territory of Puducherry” shall also apply to the “Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir”. This is an important clarification as the conditions applicable to the Union Territory of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands are different, as are the peculiar specificities of the ‘semi-state’ in the Union Territory of Delhi.
The bifurcation was accompanied by the repealing of Article 370 and Article 35A, which has had more resonance and decibel inside and outside of the Kashmir Valley, with contrasting emotions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi linked the serendipitous co-timing of the change in the constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir and that of the 144th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, to hail the moment as, “taking a step towards a new future today.” An important likening of the changed equation between the North-East states vis-à-vis the rest of the country was also invoked by the prime minister, describing the evolution as moving from ‘alga to lag av’ (separatism to the attachment) – an unequivocal lodestar of the similar aspiration in Jammu and Kashmir, too.