Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley said that Article 370 that was supposed to be a temporary provision in the Indian Constitution has become sacrosanct with time. He was addressing at a symposium organized in the capital to ‘discuss on article 370’ jointly by Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation and Jammu Kashmir Study Centre at the India International Centre Annexe in New Delhi.
Other speakers at the symposium included Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, National Spokesperson of BJP, Arun Kumar, Director Jammu Kashmir Study Centre and Shri Sunil Sethi, Former President Jammu Bar Association. Jawahar Lal Kaul, Eminent Journalist and Thinker presided over the symposium.
All the speakers elaborated about the different ways in which Article 370 has crippled personal freedom of people from the state of Jammu Kashmir and has stalled the process of integration of the state with rest of the India.
"The Article 370 has weakened the political and constitutional integration of the state of Jammu Kashmir with India," said Arun Jaitley. Explaining the myths propagated about Article 370, Arun Kumar, Director of Jammu Kashmir Study Centre said that Article 370 does not give any special status or power to Jammu Kashmir. “The Article 370 was just a procedural mechanism that was brought in to facilitate the integration of Jammu Kashmir with India," said Arun Kumar.
"India’s first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru had said that the provisions under Article 370 would erode with time but the Article is now constricting the integration process of state with India,” said Nirmala Sitharaman National Spokesperson of BJP. She added that close to 130 articles of the Indian Constitution are not applicable to the state of Jammu Kashmir.
Sunil Sethi, Former President of Jammu Bar Association explained how Article 370 cripples the personal liberties of women and other residents of Jammu Kashmir. “Women from Jammu Kashmir lose their rights to inherit property if they marry a man from other state. Any Constitutional provisions such as the RTI that empowers a common man is either not applicable in Jammu Kashmir or is applied in its truncated state,” said Sunil Sethi.
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