On 5 August 2019, Home Minister Amit Shah announced in the Rajya Sabha that the President of India had issued The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019 (C.O. 272) under Article 370, superseding the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954. The order stated that all the provisions of the Indian Constitution applied to Jammu and Kashmir. Whereas the 1954 order specified that only some articles of the Indian constitution to apply to the state, the new order removed all such restrictions. This in effect meant that the separate Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir stood abrogated.
While few consider this as a masterstroke of correcting the historical blunder, many do not know that Modi Government was contemplating to meet bigger challenge i.e. withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan and re-emergence of Taliban.
Modi Government was clearly aware of the possible regional power shift and that India would be facing extended neighbourhood that would give Pakistan a bigger arena.
The Pentagon announced on 17 November 2020, that it would reduce the number of US forces in Afghanistan from 4,500 to 2,500 by mid-January, i.e. by 15 January 2021, before President Trump’s term of office expires on 20 January 2021.
But Modi’s foreign policy and his relations with world leaders paid huge dividends. Modi government was privy to some of the most sensitive discussions that occurred prior to Pentagon announcement in November 2020.
Today there is a prediction that a new alliance may be coming together with a Taliban led Afghanistan at the core, including China, Russia, Turkey with Qatar and possibly Iran playing supplementary roles. This would be a source of growing concern to India, which is playing much closer to the US.
This was predicted and discussed in closed corridors in the beginning of 2019 itself. The new alliance would’ve been certainly be a golden opportunity for Pakistan and the separatist forces inside India to raise Kashmir issue. The resultant position would’ve been a total disaster.
The decision to secure Jammu and Kashmir within its fold once and for all was made at this juncture. The questionable alliance Modi government had with People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was not without any clear agenda i.e. to save Kashmir.
Though Modi described BJP’s decision to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir PDP as the party’s “mahamilawat”, the stage was already/clearly set. Very few then, and everyone now, know the alliance and the fallout was deliberate.
If the decision to secure J & K within its strong fold was not taken in 2019, by 2024 or even much earlier, the new diabolic alliance would’ve had a field day. Jammu and Kashmir would’ve been unofficially declared by the alliance as new ‘buffer state’ between India and Pakistan. This would’ve been only the beginning of the end i.e. engulfing J & K within the alliance fold.
Those who attacked Modi Government decision were deliberately kept in darkness. The reasons are not very difficult to perceive…….
Daksha Legal 