On Thursday, the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly witnessed stormy scenes when Khurshid Ahmad Sheikh, brother of Engineer Rashid and an MLA, displayed a banner related to Article 370. Notably, the move was met with strong objections from Leader of Opposition Sunil Sharma, leading to a brief adjournment of the House.
The incident comes following the ongoing five-day session of the Jammu and Kashmir, which started on Monday for the first time after a gap of six years. As soon as the session started today, members of the opposition BJP created chaos over the passage of a resolution on Wednesday which asked the Centre to work out a constitutional mechanism for restoring the special status of the former state.
On Wednesday Mehbooba Mufti, PDP president, criticised the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly’s resolution on the restoration of special status as ‘ambivalent’ and ‘half-hearted’. “The Chief Minister’s endorsement of a dialogue is ironic and that the present resolution lacks an unambiguous condemnation of the 2019 decision to revoke Article 370 and 35A. It only expresses ‘concern’ and calls for dialogue. It fails to explicitly oppose or condemn the 2019 decision,” Mufti said.
The first day of the session also started with problems after People’s Democratic Party MLA Waheed Para moved a resolution opposing the abrogation of Article 370 and called for restoring the union territory’s special status. Article 370 was a provision in the Constitution that granted special autonomy to the region of Jammu and Kashmir. It allowed the state to have its own constitution, flag, and autonomy over internal matters except defense, communications, and foreign affairs.
On August 5, 2019, the Centre revoked Article 370, effectively removing the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and reorganising it into two Union Territories: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
Comments