The Centre on Monday, 5 August, revoked Article 370, which confers special status to Jammu & Kashmir, through a Presidential Order. Home Minister Amit Shah also moved a Bill to bifurcate the state into two union territories – Jammu Kashmir as one and Ladakh as the other.
In parliament on Monday morning, opposition leaders tried to make their voices heard as speaker M. Venkaiah Naidu called upon home minister Amit Shah to table the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 “and other related laws” in the Rajya Sabha.
When Shah began speaking in parliament, he said that he was introducing four Bills on Jammu and Kashmir. The first announcement was that the cabinet thinks that Article 370 of the constitution – which grants special status to the state – should be scrapped. The law, he argued, had allowed “three families to rule J&K for decades”.
But given that scrapping the Article is a constitutional amendment, it cannot be done away with by a presidential order alone. It needs to be passed by both houses of parliament with a two-thirds majority.
President Ram Nath Kovind has issued a presidential order on Jammu and Kashmir, exercising his power under Clause 1 of Article 370. This presidential order has done away sections under Article 35A, which gives the state’s government the power to define permanent residents and give them special rights and privileges with regard to employment, acquiring immovable property, scholarships and other forms of aid in the state.
Responding to the morning’s proceedings, former J&K chief minister and PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti said this was the “darkest day in Indian democracy”. She tweeted, "Today marks the darkest day in Indian democracy. Decision of J&K leadership to reject 2 nation theory in 1947 & align with India has backfired. Unilateral decision of GOI to scrap Article 370 is illegal & unconstitutional which will make India an occupational force in J&K."
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the BJP has “murdered” the constitution and India’s democracy.
BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav, meanwhile, said this was a “glorious day”.