Jammu, May 28 (Scoop News)- Panun Kashmir welcomes the statement of Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State in the PMO regarding abrogation of Article 370. The statement is well timed and speaks volumes about the intentions of the new government about the mandated agenda on Jammu and Kashmir.
Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo, President, Panun Kashmir in a statement said that the massive mandate given to the new government needs to be translated into action in a time bound manner. It is ridiculous that the Chief Minister of the J&K state Omar Abdullah should threaten to secede in case Article 370 is abrogated. Unfortunately he seems ignorant of the fact that the Indian constitution does not allow secession of the Indian territory.
Ashwani said that it needs to be clarified that the Article 370 is a temporary provision in the Indian constitution which was never intended to be a permanent statute. In the debates leading up to the framing of the constitution, the worthy members of the Constituent Assembly never favoured it as a permanent feature. So much so that Pt. Nehru while referring to the Article said that it will get eroded of its own over the period of time.
The Article 370 has always nourished a feeling of exclusivism among a certain section of the populace giving rise to fissiparous tendencies. Moreover, it has provided a constitutional justification for nourishing separatism in the Jammu and Kashmir state. It has led to a belief that the Jammu and Kashmir state can be put outside the constitutional organisation of the Union of India though the state being a part of the territory of India. A debate, of course, on the issue of Article 370 is inevitable in the current political context.
Dr. Jitendra Singh has been candid enough to declare that Article 370 is a psychological barrier which has been wrongly described as a ‘bridge’ or a ‘constitutional link’ by the politicians over all these years. The bogey of loss or gain to the people of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in context of Article 370 is simply an academic issue. The fact of matter is that the Article has a potential to keep the bowl of separatism boiling in the state. Panun Kashmir would like the government to initiate a process for its abrogation at an earliest.
MORE AT http://scoopnews.in/det.aspx?q=38121