Why Pakistan’s Campaign Against Article 370 Move Is Good News For India indiatoday.in

The campaign by the Imran Khan government over Article 370 furthers India’s efforts to let the world understand that accession of Jammu and Kashmir with India was legal and valid and that only unsettled issue is Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Pakistan has upped its diplomatic offensive against India since August 5 when the Narendra Modi government scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed under Article 370 of the Constitution. The Imran Khan government in Pakistan has approached a host of countries including the P-5, the UN and groupings of Islamic nations for the support over the Article 370 move in Jammu and Kashmir but with little success.

Article 370 offered a certain degree of autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir, unlike other states, to have a separate constitution, its own penal code, a separate flag and a special clause of permanent residents with a range of benefits. But it was also considered discriminatory for many others. For long, Article 370 was considered as a gateway for Jammu and Kashmir to integrate with India. Pakistan never acknowledged this arrangement giving defining unique relation of Jammu and Kashmir with India. For Pakistan, the main objection was to the fact that Article 370 declared that entire Jammu and Kashmir belonged to India, and the merger of Jammu and Kashmir with post-Partition India was valid. The same was held in the first UN resolution as well which Pakistan never showed intent to implement.