Doing away with Article 370 Has Hurt India’s Secular Foundation

Seven years ago Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir was read down and done away with and the region was converted to two Union Territory-J & K and Ladakh. The BJP had then said that this would fully integrate the state into the country and that it would bring peace.

“Article 370 was there from the 1950s. And there was no terrorism in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, until things changed and Pakistan got an opportunity. So, to say that Article 370 has anything to do with the terrorism and separatism, I don't think the fact support that,” said Salman Soz, economist and national spokesperson of the Congress.

In a podcast discussion with Sidharth Bhatia, Soz said Article 370 was “in the vanguard” of the Constitutional spirit of decentralisation, of reflecting the local sensibilities of the people. “This was the only Muslim-majority state in the country in a Hindu-majority country and that was a wonderful thing. That was Sheikh Abdullah’s vision. Instead of celebrating it, there was a concerted effort to tear it down,” he said.

Soz said that Article 370 could have been “a kind of a prototype for how Indian federalism would evolve. But unfortunately, the BJP and others did not see it that way. I think there will be a cost to that.”