Restoration of statehood of J&K at appropriate time: Amit Shah in RS

New Delhi: On a day the Supreme Court gave a historic verdict on revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said elections would be held in J&K to restore its status as a state “at an appropriate time” without specifying a time-limit to complete the polling exercise.

“The Election Commission will hold the polls in Jammu and Kashmir and its status as a state will be restored at an appropriate time....It was Article 370 that was giving strength to the cessationist forces in the valley,” he said on Monday while responding to a debate on two legislations – the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) bill 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) bill 2023.

“There are other states with more Muslim population than Kashmir. Then why only J&K was suffering from terrorism? It was because Article 370 led to separatism," Shah said, arguing it was the only Article in the Constitution, which was temporary in nature.

Soon after it was drafted the entire Congress Working Committee, barring two members (one of the drafted it) opposed the provision, but still it found a place in the Constitution because of the leaders’ consideration for Jawaharlal Nehru’s position and prestige.

Similar to his last week’s diatribe in the Lok Sabha, Shah blamed Nehru and his decisions like announcing the ceasefire before capturing the POK and taking the Kashmir issue to the UN as the root cause, and “rule by three families” for the ills suffered by Jammu and Kashmir in all these years.

Even as the Opposition block led by Congress staged a walk-out to protest against certain comments made by the senior minister, the Parliament passed the two legislations fixing the number of seats in the assembly to 90, making reservations for SC and STs in the Assembly and nominating Kashmiri migrants and displaced people in the legislature.

The laws cleared by the Rajya Sabha in a voice vote will also open up the doors for OBC reservation by renaming the “weak and under-privileged classes” with “other backward classes”, with the Union Home Minister claiming that rules for OBC reservations were being framed without compromising the interests of Gurjar and Bakarwals.

Claiming that the Narendra Modi government finished the ecosystem of terror funding in Kashmir Valley, Shah said compared to 2,604 cases of stone-pelting with 112 fatalities and 6,235 injuries in 2010, there was not a single case of stone pelting in 2023.

Shah said there had been a 70 per cent drop in terror activities in Jammu and Kashmir in the last ten years as compared to the decade between 2004-14. Also there is a 70 per cent drop in terror-related fatalities and 50 per cent decline of death among security forces.