J&K House gives nod to resolution on spl status

The Jammu & Kashmir assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution seeking the restoration of the region's special status amid ruckus as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators tore copies of the document, stormed the well of the House, and raised slogans against the speaker.

- Mir Ehsan, Ashiq Hussain and Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

J&K deputy chief minister and National Conference (NC) leader Surinder Choudhary moved the resolution, which called upon the "Government of India to initiate dialogue with elected representatives" to bring back the region's special status, scrapped in 2019.

"This legislative assembly reaffirms the importance of the special status and constitutional guarantees, which safeguarded the identity, culture, and rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and expresses concern over their unilateral removal. This assembly emphasises that any process for restoration must safeguard both national unity and the legitimate aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir," the resolution said.

In August 2019, the Centre revoked Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave special status to the region, and bifurcated the erstwhile state into two UTS J&K with an assembly and Ladakh without one. On December 11 last year, the Supreme Court upheld the revocation of Article 370.

The campaign in the recently held J&K assembly elections was dominated by issues of Article 370 and the region's autonomy, with the National Conference-led alliance and other regional parties calling for its restoration and the BJP hailing its revocation. The NC won 42 out of the 90 seats in the polls and its ally Congress won six. With the support of six MLAs from Congress, one MLA from pre-poll ally CPI(M), one from the Aam Aadmi Party, and five independents, the NC-led continued on coalition reached the tally of 55. The BJP has 28 members in the House.

Article 370, which came into effect in October 1949, granted Kashmir autonomy of internal administration, allowing it to make its own laws in all matters except finance, defence, foreign affairs and communications.