India’s Home Minister Amit Shah declared that his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will never restore self-governance to the Jammu and Kashmir area considered by Pakistan as its territory. This came after the abrogation of articles 370 and 35A in 2019, which gave it a special status. Shah made this declaration on Friday when releasing the BJP’s poll manifesto for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections.
“Article 370 is history, and it can never come back. We will never allow its restoration,” Shah said, reemphasising BJP’s stand. The stripping of autonomy from Kashmir was a staple of BJP policies, as was the construction of a temple over a demolished mosque and the creation of a uniform civil code in India.
Shah also said that the BJP has dreamed of making Jammu and Kashmir a peaceful, developed and prosperous state and has always treated J&K as an integral part of India. He continued, saying, “Since independence, this region has been significant for our party, and we have always strove to preserve this territory within India. ”
The home minister also accused Rahul Gandhi of the opposition Congress party of indulging in only politics over the issue of Kashmir. Gandhi’s Congress has aligned with the National Conference, a regional party that has taken up the issue of restoring autonomy in the upcoming elections. Shah also asked Gandhi whether the Congress ‘ approves ’ the NC’s demand for the revocation of the repeal of Article 370.
Rahul Gandhi, on the other hand, has vowed that his party shall ensure that statehood is again bestowed to Jammu and Kashmir, which was stripped of its statehood in 2019 and reduced to Union territory. The Congress party had also criticised how autonomy was taken away from the region, especially from the Muslims in the region.
Since August 2019, Jammu and Kashmir has been directly under the administration of New Delhi with a Lieutenant Governor through a few years of the governor’s rule. The coming polls will be the first assembly elections after the abrogation of Article 370. Beginning September 18, the elections will be considered another crucial litmus test for the BJP’s unpopular move to withdraw the autonomy.
The BJP has supported its action, stating that the special status led to the creation of anti-India insurgency and separatism movements in the particular region. Autonomy has also been removed from the region, making it possible for other people to buy properties and even gain employment with the central government, much to the concerns of the locals that they are being relegated to the background as settlers in their own territory.
The NC and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) prioritise the restoration of autonomy as the significant agenda to enable. Congress has allied itself with the NC, which has received severe criticism from Amit Shah, who said that the opposition was threatening the security of the nation with an ulterior motive to gain political power.
The NC-Congress coalition and the PDP can expect to win most of the seats in the Muslim-populated Kashmir valley, and the BJP will dominate in the Hindu-majority region of Jammu. People’s reaction to the BJP’s move in 2019 to abrogate Article 370 to grant special status to Jammu and Kashmir will be evident in the election outcomes.
