On Abrogation of Article 370, and 35A

In the discussions on today's events there is one interesting statistic from the (erstwhile!) state of Jammu & Kashmir that is easily overlooked.

In Lok Sabha 2019 elections, Farooq Abdulla's National Conference bagged less than 8% of the votes of people of J&K. Mehbooba Mufti's PDP got less than 3% of the votes. BJP bagged whopping 46% of all the votes polled in the state. BJP's candidate from Jammu, Jugal Kishore alone bagged over 8.5 lakh votes, which is 3 times the total votes bagged by all National Conference candidates put together (~2.8 lakhs), and 7 times more than the votes bagged by all PDP candidates put together (~1.2 lakhs)! (Source: Election Commission of India's official website http://eciresults.nic.in).

In a democracy the best way to judge the mood of the people is through elections. And LS 2019 results from Jammu & Kashmir clearly show that the Muftis and the Abdullahs no longer represent the voice of the people of the state. With BJP, which had promised to revoke Article 370, winning close to half of the votes in the state, no one can argue that people of Jammu & Kashmir were opposed to abrogation of Article 370 & 35A.

Resolving the Kashmir Imbroglio

Even as the clueless Manmohan Singh government refuses to concede that it has failed in its primary duty to maintain law and order in the country, the only sensible reaction to the relentless violence in Kashmir has come from Maninderjeet Singh Bitta, chairman of the All-India Anti-Terrorist Front (AIATF), and former chief of the Youth Congress.

In his statement Bitta has:

• opposed a special package as that would amount to conceding victory to militants
• asked for abrogation of Article 370, which confers special status on Jammu and Kashmir
• felt that governments were more worried about rehabilitating the militants than providing relief to the Kashmiri pandits
• disapproved of the India-Pakistan talks, and
• urged government to press USA, UK and Russia to declare Pakistan a terrorist state

It is rare that we see such sensible suggestions from either intellectuals or politicians, big or small. The fate of Kashmir problem is sealed with Article 370. No lasting peace in Kashmir is possible until Article 370 is abolished. The earlier India develops gumption to accept this fact, more likely Kashmir issue will be solved, and lasting peace be established.

Support the troops

Not so frequent this time around, however, when I visited the US in the fall of 2005, I frequently saw cars inscribed with message "Support the troups". Even then the US was fighting the war in Iraq. Ordinary Americans know well that often we can do very little for those who are risking their lives and fighting for us on the frontlines, except for providing them moral support. We, the people of India (belonging to religions) should give our moral support to the determined fightback being given by the Hindus of Jammu to long established policy of our governments of giving in to demands of Muslim seperatists and fundamentalists in Kashmir.