Revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir

The Home minister introduced a Reorganisation Bill in the Indian parliament, seeking to divide the state into two union territories to be governed by a lieutenant governor and a unicameral legislature.

The resolution seeking the revocation of the temporary special status under Article 370 and the bill for the state's reorganisation was debated and passed by the Rajya Sabha – India's upper house of parliament – on 5 August 2019.

[37] The effect of the Presidential orders issued between 1954 and 1994 had been to extend 94 of the 97 subjects in the Union List (the powers of the Central Government), and 260 of the 395 Articles of the Constitution of India to the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

[33] To circumvent the legal issue of the non-existent state constituent assembly, the President used the Clause (I) of Article 370, which conferred him with the power to modify the Indian Constitution on subjects related to Jammu and Kashmir.

[33] Subsequently, the statutory resolution seeking the revocation of the special status under Article 370 and the bill for the state's reorganisation was debated and passed by the Rajya Sabha on 5 August 2019 with 125 (67%) votes in its favour and 61 (33%) against it.

[15][16] On 28 August 2019, the Supreme Court of India agreed to hear multiple petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 and the subsequent bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.

[57] Prior to the revocation of the status, the Ministry of Home Affairs granted approval for the mobilization of thousands of paramilitary security troops into Jammu and Kashmir, citing reason to maintain law and order in the area.

[59] However, on 3 August, Omar Abdullah said that Governor Satya Pal Malik "assured him there was no initiative in progress to dilute Article 35A of the Constitution, start delimitation or trifurcate.

[74] In addition to local Kashmiri journalists, editors of several Indian newspapers and television stations complained that their teams have not been able to send in their reports from most of the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, except for a few blocks in Srinagar.

[77][78] Jammu and Kashmir's former chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah,[79] and MLAs Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami and Engineer Rashid were among those placed under "preventive detention"[79] by the security forces.

[80] India's Foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar defended the clampdown saying that this was done to prevent an outbreak of violence and civilian casualties, citing the unrest caused after the death of militant Burhan Wani in 2016.

It said that the misuse of data services and Internet by "terrorists" to conduct terrorism and to incite people by spreading fake news necessitated such restrictions, which will be gradually reduced.

The Vice President of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Majeed Mir, claims almost 500,000 jobs have been lost since the blockade, stating that "irreversible damage has been caused to the economy".

[104] On 16 August 2020, high speed mobile internet services (4G/LTE) were restored in two districts of the union territory of J&K on a trial basis, after Supreme Court of India ruled last month that indefinite shutdown was illegal.

[105] In a verdict delivered on petitions filed against the restrictions imposed in Jammu and Kashmir, the Supreme Court ordered a review of all the curbs on usage of Internet services.

It also noted that Section 144 of India's Code of Criminal Procedure is not to be used for suppressing people's expression, ordering the local administration to publish every usage of that provision to enable its public scrutiny.

[147] Chief Minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh, a congress leader also termed the revocation of Article 370 as "totally unconstitutional" and said "this will set a bad precedent as it would mean that the Centre could reorganise any state in the country by simply imposing President's rule.

The delegation was a 12-member team composed of Rahul Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad, K. C. Venugopal, Anand Sharma, D. Raja, Sitaram Yechury, Dinesh Trivedi, Tiruchi Siva, Manoj Jha, Sharad Yadav, Majeed Memon, and D. Kupendra Reddy.

[156] Explaining her decision to support the revocation, Mayawati stated that Article 370 and 35A had caused social, economic and political injustice in Jammu and Kashmir, and the people – including the Buddhists – will now get the long-pending benefits that was denied to them.

[163] Member of Parliament from Telugu Desam Party, Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar said, "I must congratulate the Home Minister and PM as by strong implementation of this, the people of J&K must be relieved from all this tension and live happily and become a part of the country" and welcomed the move.

[164] The Odisha-based Biju Janata Dal and Tamil Nadu-based All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party also supported the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir special status.

[9] Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, a prominent Indian Muslim organisation, supported the decision to abrogate Article 370 saying that the integration of Kashmir with India is in the interest of Kashmiri people.

The map also annotated Ladakh's boundary with China as "frontier undefined", whose status would be formalised by "the sovereign authorities concerned after the settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute."

[278] The Indian government called the Reuters report "completely fabricated and incorrect", but acknowledged that after the Friday mosque prayers, there were "a few stray protests in Srinagar/Baramulla and none involved a crowd of more than 20 people".

[283] According to India Today, in the Hindu majority Jammu region, people held widespread "massive celebratory" demonstrations over several days with the distribution of sweets, bursting of firecrackers and dancing.

Eggs, glass bottles, shoes and other objects were thrown at the High Commission and the people celebrating by the anti-India protesters, who were mostly British Pakistanis and Sikh extremists.

[292][293][294][295] British Prime Minister Boris Johnson later expressed "regret" over this violent incident, and assured that all necessary steps will be taken to ensure the safety and security of the embassy, its personnel, and visitors.

[327] Impact of the Revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir encompassed a year without high-speed Internet,[328] changes in the politics and bureaucracy of the region,[329] priority of counter-insurgency & counter-terrorism operations,[330] new domicile rules, talks of restoration of statehood,[331][332] judicial lethargy,[333] and decline in stone-pelting among other things.

[334] As per figures collected from Kashmir tourism department, the number of footfalls by tourists counted at its highest 180,000 in the month of March 2022 (post-abrogation of article 370), which is a record in the past 10 years.

Opposition leaders, such as Omar Abdullah, argue that the government is now counting these pilgrims to artificially boost tourism figures, projecting an inflated picture of economic growth in the region.