Scrap Article 370, decentralise governance in Jammu, Ladakh regions: Arun Jaitley

Taking a critical view of the suggestions mooted by the Fifth Working Group on Jammu and Kashmir, set up by Prime Minister Manmoahn Singh, the BJP has called for abolition of Article 370 and decentralisation of powers within the State to regions such as Jammu and Ladakh.

In a letter to Justice (Retd) Sageer Ahmad, chairman of the Working Group on Strengthening Relations between the State and the Centre, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley has said the incorporation of Article 370 in the Indian Constitution was a "Nehruvian misadventure."

Jaitley said that the experience of the past 57 years showed that the journey of Article 370 evolved from a demand of a separate status to separatism and the ideology which produced it ( Article 370) shared the blame for this unfortunate evolution.

"It is for the people of India, including those of Jammu & Kashmir, to pause and look back and objectively decide whether Article 370 has served the cause of the nation or the people of the State or has it at all strengthened national integration?," Jaitley said, adding, "Has Article 370 and the concept of separate status and identity resolved the problems which it was intended to resolve or has it created additional problems?"

The Fifth Working Group was constituted following the statement of the Prime Minister at the Round Table Conference held on May 25, 2006 at Srinagar on the subject of "Strengthening Relations between the State and the Centre".

The group is considering following proposals suggested by its members with regard to the Centre-State relations in the context of Jammu & Kashmir:

(a) Self-rule for the people of Jammu & Kashmir.

(b) Autonomy for the people of Jammu & Kashmir in the nature of pre-1953 status.

(d) Abolition of Article 370 and full integration of State of Jammu & Kashmir into India.

Calling for abolition of Article 370, Jaitley said Pakistan never reconciled to the fact that Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India and after waging three wars to annex the State, it has now become a sponsor of cross-border terrorism.

"Article 370 perpetuated a psyche that Jammu & Kashmir has a special relationship with India and is not fully a part of it. It sent a signal both to terrorists and Pakistan that its full integration could be prevented. The psyche of separate status was catalysed by terrorism in order to evolve amongst some misled sections into a demand for an independent State. Article 370 did not prove a remedy for any of the problems it tried to resolve. The historical events which followed the incorporation of Article 370 established that the provisions itself became a problem rather than the solution," Jaitely said.

Jiatley said that Article 370 has not been effective in tackling any of the major problems facing the states like elimination of terrorism, economic development, State, correction of regional imbalances, creation of job opportunities, grant of citizenship rights to the refugees from West Pakistan, payment of compensation to the refugees from PoK, and rehabilitation of the displaced Kashmiri Pundits back in the Valley.

Referring to regional imbalance Jaitley said ever since Independence, the State has been administered predominantly by elected representatives from Kashmir Valley, which perpetuated discrimination in governance against both Jammu and Ladakh region.

Pointing out that to deflect the criticism against this discrimination, a larger issue of injustice to the people of Kashmir is raised by certain interested persons, Jaitley referred to the 1999 data of the Indian population living below poverty line.

"A national average of 26 per cent of the population in 1999 lived below the poverty line. In Jammu & Kashmir this figure is 3.6 per cent. This is attributable, amongst other factors, to a large Central assistance in the State. The per capita Central assistance in Kashmir was Rs 3,000 annually, as against Rs 300 in the other backwards States like Bihar a few years ago," he said.

The BJP leader also said that though the population of the two regions of Kashmir and Jammu is not substantially different , there is large-scale discrimination in the matter of public employment.

"About 3.3 lakh out of a total 4.5 lakh Government employees and semi-Government employees in the State come from the Kashmir Valley. Jammu and Ladakh regions are grossly under-represented. Ladakh's representation in the civil secretariat is only 0.68 per cent. The unemployment figures of Jammu and Ladakh are far higher than Kashmir - over 69 per cent. No delimitation of constituencies in the State is being undertaken presently. In the Assembly, the Kashmir region is represented by 46 members and the Jammu Province by 37 members. Only 4 members are from Ladakh," he said.

He went on to point out that such anomalies existed despite the fact that the number of registered voters in the Jammu region is 30,59,986, which is higher than the number of voters in Kashmir, which stands at 28,85,555.

"It is, therefore, important and necessary that this Working Group suggests methodology of decentralised governance in the regions of Jammu and Ladakh. A possible option can be to set up constitutionally-empowered Provincial Councils in these two regions. These Provincial Councils should have financial and legislative jurisdiction in relation to developmental activities," he said.