The Red Herring: Kashmirs Status as a Sovereign Entity Cannot be Changed
The old saying that the sins of the father are visited on the son is very true. The unpardonable acts of Jwaharlal Nehru and successive governments after him of first enacting a special status for Kashmir and then doing nothing to integrate the state with India have now blown to bloom. The immediate issue was the application of the " Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial assets and enforcement of Security Interest Act 2002" to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The J and K High Court has however ruled that this act cannot be made applicable to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, till it is approved by the Kashmir legislature. It has pointed out that Article 370 of the constitution has clearly spelt out a special status for the Kashmir State. This is a landmark judgement and greatly weakens India's case on world forums that Kashmir is an integral part of India.
The High Court judgement that runs into 76 pages makes some other telling observations. The Court has held that the Indian Parliament has no jurisdiction to make laws directly applicable to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. the judgement has held that the laws made by the Maharajah of kashmir via the Kashmir constitution of 1939 were the only valid legal entity in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The court has made another telling observation where in it has said that the sovereignty and integrity of the state cannot be challenged as it is part of Article 370 of the Indian constitution. In this it has quoted an earlier Supreme court ruling of The Indian Union.
These observations show that Kashmir is not an integral part of India and yet we cannot blame the High Court for interpreting the legal position. The High Court is correct as the seeds of this problem have been sowed much earlier by the political leadership led by the Congress party and Nehru.
The situation is now volatile and this judgement of the Kashmir High Court will give greater fodder to the Pakistan claim that Kashmir is a disputed territory and a plebiscite as per the United Nation resolution should be held to decide the accession of the state to India or Pakistan. India cannot agree to this as in the event of a free and fair election the people are overwhelmingly likely to vote to be out of Indian orbit.
As nationalists, most Indians would be aghast at this judgement of the High Court as it shows the accession of the state to india in poor light. I wonder what can be the solution in case a weak and timid political leadership continues with Article 370. Narendra Modi came to power on a plank of removal of Article 370, but he is now tongue tied and perhaps he is too weak to get the article removed. Perhaps its political expediency, but it can prove dangerous in the years to come.
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