AN ALL-PARTY meeting was held at Chennai on Saturday, August 10, in the background of abrogation of provisions of Article 370. The meeting was held under the leadership of DMK President, M K Stalin, in which all the leaders of Secular Progressive Front representing DMK, Congress, CPI(M), CPI, VCK, MDMK, IJK, Kongu Makkal Katchi, MMK, IUML, DK, and MJK participated. The meeting discussed the political situation prevailing in the country following this drastic action of BJP led central government and passed a resolution demanding the new Act passed by the parliament on Kashmir be kept in abeyance and an all-party delegation, consisting of parties represented in Parliament, be sent to Kashmir to see the actual conditions on the field and interact with Kashmiris to know their opinion on the issue.

Excerpts from the unanimous resolution passed at the meeting:

The resolution mentioned the crisis of the peasantry in the country which has accentuated since Modi came to power. The economic mess which the BJP has created in the country was also discussed. Concern was shown to the fall in rupee vis-à-vis dollar. The GDP growth has also decreased and the country has fallen from the 5th largest economy of the world to the 7th.

It said that majority of the 36 bills passed in the recently concluded parliament session were anti-democratic; inimical to the rights of the states; against the interest of the people and beneficial to the corporates. Some of them were made with an intention to achieve the basic goals of RSS. 

The resolution further gave the historical background to the Article 370. It said, the BJP government at the centre, now, has abrogated important provisions of it, above all, bifurcated the state and changed the status into a UT without legislature(Ladakh) and another UT with a legislature (J&K), thereby bringing them under the direct control of the centre.

After willfully dissolving the state legislature elected by the people of Kashmir, imposing President’s rule, keeping security forces in nooks and corners of the state, imposing section 144 to restrict movement of the people, keeping the political leaders of the state under house arrest, snapping communication across the state, in nutshell, the centre has made the whole state into a camp of prisoners. They have autocratically executed these changes in the framework of the Indian constitution. 

The all-party meeting strongly condemned BJP’s unjustified fundamentalist ideas and utilising the majority given by the people in parliament to implement such ideas in an utterly wrong manner.  It is to be remembered that Article 370 (Draft Article 306A) was created following a five month-long series of discussion, in depth, between Sheikh Abdullah and India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru to provide special powers to Jammu and Kashmir.

The resolution pointed out the comments of Gopalaswami Ayyangar, a member of Constituent Assembly, who also has the distinction of drafting Article 370. He had emphatically stated during the discussion, that Jammu & Kashmir was a distinctive region.  The resolution also mentioned Sardar Patel’s comments, “we have decided to give this special status to this state on the basis of its distinctive issues.” The BJP cannot hide this recorded fact.

Jawaharlal Nehru also gave an assurance to the parliament that his government has no intention to fully remove Article 370.

The all -party meeting termed the abolition of these special powers of J & K as an assassination of democracy, an unforgivable treachery inflicted upon the Kashmiris and a clear violation of Indian Constitution.

The meeting observed that the BJP has belied its promises and with its brute majority in parliament intends to carry forward the agenda set out by RSS. For more than 70 years, the people of India have been following its ultimate doctrine of “unity in diversity” showing the world that India is a safe haven for diversity. This sort of action of BJP will change the course of the country into a path towards destruction. 

resolution pointed out that the manner in which BJP manipulated the parliament was extremely unconstitutional. Article 370(3) states that any sort of amendment to this section can be made upon the recommendation of J & K legislature and Article 3 of Indian Constitution states that while reorganising any state, a bill for such reorganisation of a state can be placed before the Parliament, only after such move was recommended by the concerned state legislature. But the BJP has brazenly violated both these sections of the constitution. Such an act hangs in balance a danger of eventuality, now being faced by J & K, tomorrow it may happen to any other state in India.

The Supreme Court has earlier ruled that “Article 370 of the constitution is a permanent one.” However, the central government has acted in this manner disregarding such a ruling by the SC.

The resolution stated, without eliciting opinion from the political parties and the people of J & K, without convening an all-party meeting even when the parliament is in session, the one-sided decision taken by the government in a hurry will be liable to unintended consequences in the near future. 

The all-party meeting hoped that the people of the country shall vociferously oppose the decision and shall not allow the Constitution of India and its basic ideals be trammeled by the authoritarian urge of one single party.

all-party meeting demanded immediate steps on the following: unconditional release of detained former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir and other leaders;  while safeguarding against any threat to the security of the country,  the armed forces should be withdrawn from the state; in order to restore normalcy, to allow the people to follow their livelihood activities as before, modes of communication should be allowed to function normally and freely; all these steps should be taken up without any ulterior motives; until the Supreme Court examine and give its ruling on the action of BJP government at the centre, which is anti-democratic, anti-federal and inimical to the rights of the states; in order to elicit the views of the people who are affected until a government and a legislature is formed in Jammu and Kashmir through a free and fair election and votes of the people,  this all party meeting reiterate that the new Act recently passed by the parliament and its operation shall be kept in abeyance. As communications got disrupted, as leaders of political parties are being blocked from visiting Kashmir, a dark situation prevail in the state because of which, a crisis emerged as a result of not knowing the real situation prevailing in Kashmir.

The all-party meeting reiterated that the central government should immediately send a delegation to Jammu and Kashmir. This delegation should consist of leaders of all parties having their presence in the parliament. The central government should make necessary arrangements for the delegation to interact with the people of the state; so that, they can assess the situation prevailing in J & K and inform rest of the people in the country.

TN PROTESTS DETENTION OF SITARAM YECHURY

Sitaram Yechury and D Raja were detained at Srinagar airport on August 9, on their way to meet the ailing CPI(M) leader, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami and to know the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Following this, a call was given by the CPI(M) state committee to hold demonstrations across the state protesting against this detention of leaders who went to Kashmir to ascertain the situation prevailing after the abrogation of Article 370 by the Modi-led BJP government at the centre.  Starting from Chennai to Kanyakumari widespread demonstrations under the state leadership were held in more than 150 centres deriding the vindictive attitude of the centre against the Left leaders at Srinagar airport.