Letter Seeking The President's Intervention To Avoid Disaster in Jammu and Kashmir

The political ‘quake’ in Jammu and Kashmir following unfortute and sad demise of Mufti Mohd. Sayeed has disturbed the political and social combinations and permutations in Jammu and Kashmir. There is no political party which is having even one-third of MLAs in the Assembly. The disgusting alliance between the PDP and BJP could not enjoy acceptability of the people of J&K for many reasons. It was the persol initiative of Mufti Mohd. Sayeed that ‘hawks’ and ‘doves’ could be caged together and thirst for power was the biggest factor.

After the departure of Mufti Mohd. Sayeed from the political scene, there is no ground/reason which will help the two parties PDP and BJP to go together in J&K. There are several factors which need no further elaboration vis-à-vis the political instability in J&K. The important point is that there is no single party which has a strength of even one-third in the Assembly of 87.

The PDP headed by Mehbooba Mufti, Member Lok Sabha, has only 27 MLAs and there is no political equation or understanding with the BJP which has 25 MLAs. The two parties ruled in J&K and that was possible only with the political wisdom of Mufti Mohd. Sayeed who worked as Union Home Minister in the government of V.P. Singh. Now the situation stands changed. There are three vertical divisions in the PDP. The BJP is also a divided house. BJP has been supporting the government just to swallow their share in the loot which was only possible by sharing power in the state.

One group in the PDP is controlled by a lobby hostile to the Constitution of India. Another group in the PDP is opposed to Mehbooba Mufti for different reasons. The BJP has lost its base in Jammu because the people realized that BJP has no commitment to uphold the tiol cause or the Constitution. There is a strong wave in support of reorganization of J&K and the BJP has lost credibility among its supporters and voters. This is the reason that the BJP leadership in J&K has started fawning over the Kashmiri leadership.

I am making this submission to Your Excellency to request for your urgent intervention in the interest of unity, integrity and sovereignty of the entire tion by your persol intervention to save the situation in J&K by your kind advice to the Governor of J&K to dissolve the Assembly by invoking Section 53 (2) (b) of the Constitution of J&K. Section 53 (2)(b) has vested power in the Governor of J&K to dissolve the Assembly. This exercise was challenged in High Court of J&K when Shri Jagmohan, the then Governor, dissolved the Assembly in 1990. The High Court in its judgment upheld the power/authority of the Governor to dissolve the Assembly. The situation today demands that the present Assembly needs to be dissolved without any delay as the Assembly is not capable to function and deliver.

In J&K, the life of an Assembly is six years and there has been no delimitation of Assembly constituencies since 1995, although four districts were added in Jammu and six in Kashmir Valley. There are several Assembly constituencies which fall in two districts which is against the mandate of the Peoples Representation Act. Similarly, seven constituencies are reserved for SCs only in Jammu province. They have been under reservation since 1996 and there is no hope for the rotation of reserved constituencies for another 30 years. The reserved constituencies throughout the country were rotated in 2001 by a tiol Commission appointed by Parliament under the Chairmanship of Justice Kuldip Singh. It was unfortute that the commission's ambit was not extended to J&K.

The President is empowered by Article 370 of the Constitution to amend any part or provision in this Article. This is the right time that Article 370 is amended by the President who enjoys exclusive power to do so. It is urged that the President should amend Article 370 so as to establish the state of J&K as confederation of J&K. This can be brought about by establishing twin states mely, Jammu state and Kashmir Ghati state. The Ladakh region may be brought in the list of Union Territories after seeking the opinion of the Ladakhis. It is also pertinent to mention that each state within the confederation should have control over the subjects enumerated in the State List. The concurrent list may be shared by both the states. The state can continue as twin states with one Governor and one High Court.

Your Excellency, I hope and trust that you shall be gracious enough to consider my suggestions I have mentioned above after a living experiment of 50 years in the political battlefield of J&K. Your Excellency has been entrusted full power/authority by the Constitution to deal with Article 370 which was introduced on 26th January, 1950 to deal with J&K where morchy was not abolished (for what reasons, this is not the right time to discuss). Morchy was abolished by the Constituent Assembly on 20th August, 1952 under the leadership of Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah. This brought an end to Article 370. It trailed behind due to the failure of the Parliament of India at that time. Article 370 had lost its existence at that time only. It is now a dead provision having no legal effect or constitutiol validity.

I am sure Your Excellency may be pleased to go through by submission and take appropriate measures as the President of India having full authority and competence to deal with Article 370 and integrate the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir with the Union of India w.e.f. 27th October, 1947.

Yours sincerely,

Prof. Bhim Singh,

Member, tiol Integration Council, & Sr. Advocate, Supreme Court,

New Delhi-110001.