Article 370 still a festering wound for J-K; can statehood heal it?

Time, they say, heals all wounds. Not in Kashmir. In Kashmir, old wounds fester under brittle scabs while new ones continue to emerge.

On this day (August 5) six years ago, New Delhi turned Article 370 of the Constitution into a dead letter in one fell swoop. The Centre’s unilateral abrogation of a constitutional guarantee shattered the fragile relationship that had sustained between New Delhi and Srinagar for seven decades despite periodic dilutions of Article 370. To add insult to injury, the Centre carved out Ladakh from Jammu and Kashmir, turning them into two separate Union Territories, thereby stripping J&K’s statehood.

Paradise was fettered in concertina wires, its inhabitants — hoi polloi and the high and mighty alike — were huddled by force into homes or jails, and communication with the “outside world” was jammed. The apex judiciary, too, provided little relief, turning even the jurisprudence of habeas corpus on its head.

Also read: August 5 is here: Art 370 abrogation to Ram Mandir, why date matters to Modi govt

NC’s U-turn

It, thus, didn’t surprise many in Kashmir when, nearly four-and-a-half years later, in December 2023, the apex court upheld the abrogation while dangling the consolation of restoring electoral democracy in Jammu and Kashmir within a year. The wounds might have still healed with time had they not been infected by the virus of political expediency, grown, this time round, not in the tinkering labs of Delhi but Kashmir’s own Srinagar.

The Assembly elections held last year, the first since the abrogation, saw Omar Abdullah storm to power with a landslide win for his National Conference across the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley that dwarfed the BJP’s formidable performance across Hindu-dominated Jammu. That Abdullah’s unqualified promises of initiating steps for the restoration of Article 370 contributed in a big way to the NC’s mammoth win was palpable. Yet, no sooner had Abdullah assumed office as chief minister, he began to dither, offering excuses for not pursuing his party’s main poll promise and, instead, canvassing merely for restoration of statehood while making overt moves to cosy up to New Delhi.

Abdulla Sattar, a resident of North Kashmir’s Baramulla and a staunch NC supporter for nearly three decades, is disheartened to see his “leader” not living up to the expectations of his people. “We understand that restoring special status may be a difficult task but what’s truly disheartening is that post-elections, the NC government isn’t even expressing any resentment against the BJP over what was done to us on August 5, 2019,” Sattar told The Federal.

Also read: Article 370 abrogation brought prosperity to J-K: Congress leader Salman Khurshid

What will August 5 bring?

If six years on since the abrogation and two months shy of a year since Abdullah returned as CM, J&K once again appears to be on the edge today, it is as much in nervous anticipation of what wound the Centre may inflict on Kashmir next as it is over the remedy that the chief minister may claim to offer.

For weeks now, rumours have spiralled uncontrollably across the Valley on what the sixth abrogation anniversary may bring for J&K. Some speculate that the Centre, never shy of weaponising symbolism, could restore J&K’s statehood, with some conditions, while others wonder if such an eventuality will also force snap polls just 10 months after a government was installed in Srinagar.

Instead of making an effort to address the scepticism of his people, Abdullah appears eager to just play along. On the eve of the abrogation’s anniversary, the chief minister, just back in Srinagar following a “work trip” to Modi’s Gujarat, acknowledged the heady rumours that have gripped J&K.

Also read: Kashmir speech | Did Amit Shah invoke ‘Akhand Bharat’ narrative?

A defeatist sentiment

“I’ve heard every possible permutation and combination about what to expect in J&K tomorrow (August 5), so let me stick my neck out and say nothing will happen tomorrow — fortunately, nothing bad will happen but unfortunately nothing positive will happen either. I’m still optimistic about something positive for J&K in this monsoon session of Parliament but not tomorrow. And no, I haven’t had any meetings or conversations with people in Delhi. This is just a gut feeling. Let’s see this time tomorrow,” Abdullah posted on X.

What Abdullah’s X post does concede, albeit unwittingly, is a distinctly defeatist transition in sentiments, his own as well as of the ordinary Kashmiri. The CM and ordinary Kashmiris like Sattar seem to have made their peace with the idea that the abrogation will not be revoked — at least not until Modi and the BJP remain in power at the Centre — and, thus, pursuing this is pointless. As such, the discourse now revolves around the political imperative of settling for the least challenging battle — that of restoration of statehood — instead of fighting for the restoration of Article 370.

One step at a time?

Srinagar-based political analyst and a former professor at Kashmir University’s department of political science, Noor Mohammad Baba, views this shift as New Delhi’s “success”. “New Delhi has marginalized the present government to an extent that, they (NC government) have resorted to a policy of appeasement and they feel seeking statehood is safer than pushing for special status,” Baba said, though insisting that the NC’s posturing doesn’t necessarily mean that the discourse on restoring Article 370 is dead.

Within the NC, those who back Abdullah’s push for statehood while defending his silence on the abrogation say the chief minister is being pragmatic and that his current posturing must not be seen as abandoning the pitch for reinstating Article 370.

“How can a political party that has passed a resolution on (restoring) autonomy and special status give up on it,” asked NC spokesperson Ifra Jan. Asserting that statehood is “going to be the first step” towards pursuing the trickier demand of revoking the abrogation, Jan told The Federal, “a lot is tied to statehood — land rights, jobs, domicile laws, revenue records, lease agreements, and, most importantly, a growing and legitimate fear of identity change... when people accuse us (NC) of giving up on special status just because we’re now vocal about statehood — they’re missing the point.”

Also read: Article 370 encouraged separatism, Modi govt ended terrorism in J-K: Amit Shah

Deepening strain between allies

There is, however, a growing bloc within the NC that is getting uneasy with Abdullah’s silence on Article 370. The NC’s Srinagar MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi has publicly expressed his displeasure at what he calls a “betrayal” of the promises the chief minister made during the election campaign last year. Sources close to the Srinagar MP told The Federal that there has been a near breakdown of dialogue between Abdullah and Mehdi ever since the latter stormed out of a meeting of the NC executive two months back after a heated war of words with the CM over a range of issues.

There is also a deepening strain in ties between the NC and its INDIA bloc ally, the Congress party. Decimated in the J&K polls, the Congress largely relapsed into its inert self for a better part of the past year before finally waking up last month to aggressively push for restoration of statehood while again, like Abdullah, maintaining a deafening silence on Article 370. In Delhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi also wrote a joint letter to Modi demanding that the Centre bring legislation during the monsoon session of Parliament to restore statehood for J&K.

While the Congress and Abdullah were essentially on the same page, the CM and his NC supporters, curiously, took offence at the Congress for staging protests in Jammu and Delhi, pressing for restoration of statehood. NC chief spokesperson and Zadibal MLA Tanvir Sadiq told The Federal that the Congress’ aggressive push was a “deliberate sabotage” of the struggle for statehood while Abdullah claimed that the NC ally had “done nothing” on the issue for months but was now “creating noise” despite knowing that, if pressured, the Modi government would not concede a political rival’s demand.

Also read: Kashmir poll win was momentous; can Congress fully grasp its import?

PDP grabs the chance

The NC’s pussyfooting on Article 370 has also drawn strong criticism from its principal rival in the Valley, Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP. The PDP’s outspoken Pulwama MLA Waheed Para asserted that the NC had “played with the sentiments of Kashmiri people” as it sought votes on the promise of restoring Article 370 but now “wants people to settle for statehood even though every single reason the BJP cited in support of abrogation had proved to be false”.

“One of the biggest claims the Centre made and still makes to justify abrogation was that it ended terrorism in J&K; if that was the case, then what happened in Pahalgam on April 22? Did the chief minister or anyone else in his government ask the Centre? Instead, the CM is constantly trying to please Modi with morning runs at the Sabarmati riverfront and his visit to the Statue of Unity in Gujarat,” Para said.

Yearly reminder of betrayal

The political slugfest aside, despondency over the abrogation and the bleak prospect of its revocation now runs deep among ordinary citizens in the Valley. Srinagar-based scholar Mir Suhail noted that political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, once seemingly united in their demand for restoration of special status, have now “completely surrendered” and that the people of Kashmir “have come to terms with the reality that restoring special status is nearly impossible”.

To Sopore resident Bilal Ahmad Bhat, August 5 is now a yearly reminder of the “humiliation and betrayal” that Kashmir was meted out by New Delhi. “Even if they restore statehood this August 5, that feeling of hurt and humiliation will not go away. Statehood is a low-hanging fruit; if we get it, its fine, but Article 370 was a matter of pride and identity. When you strip someone of his identity, what is left,” Bhat asked.