J&K: How Amit Shah abrogated Article 370 and deftly managed the fallout
J&K: How Amit Shah abrogated Article 370 and deftly managed the fallout
On 5 August 2019, the Narendra Modi-led government did what many thought was unthinkable – it scrapped Article 370, a constitutional provision that grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and also announced that the state would be divided into two Union territories – Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had been tasked with this mammoth mission – of ensuring the passage of the law in Parliament as well as ensuring that there’s minimal fallout of this move in the area and the country.
Now, as we approach the fourth anniversary of this momentous occasion, let’s take a look back at how exactly did Amit Shah orchestrate the move, within the walls of Parliament as well as in the region that was going to witness, perhaps the biggest change it had seen in recent years.
How Shah dealt with Parliament
Before we take a look at how Amit Shah dealt with the fallout of the abrogation of Article 370, let’s take a closer look at the process of how the minister prepped for it. And all of it dates back to when the Modi-led alliance won the 2019 general elections. It is reported that soon after their historic victory in the Lok Sabha polls, the Modi government decided to go the whole hog and get rid of Article 370 itself.
But this would be no easy task. However, Home Minister Amit Shah did his homework brilliantly. A lot of the initial work happened outside the offices of the Home Ministry and the Law Ministry in North Block and Shashtri Bhawan respectively and total secrecy was maintained.
Also read: Four years of abrogation of Article 370: Kashmir’s journey from alienation to integration
Files, documents and other related papers were sent to Home Minister Amit Shah’s ground floor office in the Parliament complex and the leader would burn the midnight oil giving shape to the legislation that would enable separating the state and also the presidential order that eventually made Article 370 inoperative.
According to a Hindustan Times report, Shah kept close contact with Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, throughout the process and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval was also brought in to the discussions.
When Shah was adequately prepared, it was decided that the Parliament session of the time would be extended until 7 August with the aim to get these bills passed. As the wheels within the BJP turned – then Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal were asked to manage things in the House and a whip was issued.
Then on 5 August of 2019, Home Minister Amit Shah stood up and introduced the proposal to read down Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. The decision to table the bills and resolution on Jammu and Kashmir took a portion of the Rajya Sabha by surprise, as Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien noted in his speech.
However, Shah didn’t back down and presented his proposal. During his address, the home minister described how the government had the power to revoke Article 370. He utilised Section 3 of Article 370 – “Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this article, the President may, by public notification, declare that this article shall cease to be operative or shall be operative only with such exceptions and modifications and from such date as he may specify: Provided that the recommendation of the Constituent Assembly of the State referred to in clause ( 2 ) shall be necessary before the President issues such a notification” – to revoke the legislation.
A closer look at this part clearly shows that the President could scrap Article 370, if he/she received the green signal from the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir. However, J&K doesn’t have a Constituent Assembly nor did it have a Legislative Assembly and in such a power vacuum, the president has the power to act on Article 370.
However, Amit Shah’s proposal triggered a massive uproar from the Congress and other parties over the manner in which the resolutions had been brought. Two Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members, Nazir Ahmad Laway and Mir Mohammad Fayaz, were very agitated. While Fayaz tore his own kurta, Nazir Ahmad tore up the Indian Constitution. They were immediately removed from the House by marshals on orders from the Chairman.
After day-long deliberations, Amit Shah’s proposals were put to a vote and it won, receiving 125 votes in its favour and 61 against it. The next day, the bill was passed by the Lok Sabha with 370 votes in its favour and 70 against it. The bill became an Act after it was signed by the President.
What about the fallout?
Revoking Article 370 in Parliament seemed to be the easy part of this mission. After all, Jammu and Kashmir hadn’t witnessed long-term peace, as terrorists and separatists continued to cause mass unrest in the state.
For this purpose, Amit Shah roped in NSA Ajit Doval and now it has emerged that the Centre had laid the groundwork for the abrogation of Article 370 in the area long before the minister introduced his proposals in the House.
First off, was the Centre’s Operation All-Out against the terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. Through this operation, the Centre identified over 258 terrorists and went after them. This, however, was only the first step of the entire operation.
In the third week of July of 2019, inquiries were carried out if Jammu and Kashmir was ready for a ‘big change’. In fact, one security official told The Print that K Vijay Kumar, adviser to Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik, had then said, “We should be ready for some tough decision on Kashmir.”
Also, NSA Doval had visited the area in the third week of July and had wide-ranging discussions on the situation on the ground. He had then visited the Amarnath cave, giving an impression to officials that he was reviewing security arrangements in view of the then-ongoing Amarnath Yatra.
Senior security officials then felt a change coming and when ‘substantial deployment of Border Security Force (BSF) followed by that of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in the last week took place, they realised “something big” was going to happen.
The Home Ministry also sent 2,000 satellite phones to the J&K administration in the event of phones and internet not functioning. Moreover, the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO)’s high altitude long-endurance Israeli Heron drones were sent across the Pir Panjal for crowd control. Military aircraft flew dozens of sorties flying relief supplies including food, water and medicines into the Valley.
As per an Hindustan Times report, it was on 4 August that Shah called up the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Samant Goel and told them to be ready – this was probably the first time the security establishment realised that the Modi government was going to scrap Article 370 in Parliament.
The Amarnath Yatra was called off and the Centre also placed the Valley’s political leaders under house arrest over fears that Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and jihadists would target them.
Amit Shah also took the brave decision of snapping communication lines of Kashmir, though this move was severely criticised by the Opposition and human rights activists. While some would argue that this only enraged the locals more, it broke the terrorists’ ability to organise and unleash terror in the region. There was no terrorist leader active on the scene and even if there was, they couldn’t use social media to convey their messages and provoke the people.
The minister also deployed security personnel in significant numbers along the streets and at the entry and exit points of Srinagar and other major towns to pre-empt spontaneous mobilisation.
But at the end of it all, Article 370 was revoked and as they say, the rest is history.
How has Kashmir fared post-Article 370?
It’s been four years now that Article 370 has been abrogated and since then Jammu and Kashmir has undergone a remarkable change.
The Centre even told the Supreme Court that abrogation of the legislation led to “unprecedented development, progress, security and stability to the region” and that “life has returned to normalcy in the region after three decades of turmoil.” It has also said that the abrogation of Article 370 led to dismantling of the terror network, and incidents of stone pelting and street violence have “now become a thing of the past”.
For instance, stone pelting incidents recorded a significant drop from 2018 to 2023 until date – from 1,767 to zero. Also, 52 instances of bandh/hartal have reduced to zero in this year. There is also a significant drop in terrorist recruitment from 199 in 2018 to 12 in the year 2023 till date.
Tourist footfalls in the region have surged with border tourism gaining immense popularity. In the post-Article 370 days, educational institutes have seamlessly functioned. Moreover, businesses have mushroomed in the region. Startups and entrepreneurs have capitalised on newfound opportunities.
A true display of Kashmir’s transformation since the abrogation of Article 370 was the G20 Tourism meet held in May, which saw the participation of Over 60 delegates from G20 member countries. This was biggest international event organised in the region since the scrapping of special status.
With inputs from agencies
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