News Analysis India

Tag: Article 370

  • ‘Should I seek Article 370 restoration from Pakistan?’: Mehbooba lashes out at Centre

    Express News Service
    SRI NAGAR: Claiming that the Centre gets angry whenever she demands restoration of Article 370, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said the special status was given to Jammu and Kashmir by the Indian Constitution and not by Pakistan or China.

    She also appealed Kashmiri youth not to pick up guns and follow democratic means. At the same time, she urged the Centre to follow the same policy in J&K that is being followed in Assam.

    “Article 370 was given to J&K by Indian constitution. It was not given by the constitution of Pakistan or China. The Centre should restore Articles 370 and 35A as the August 5, 2019 decision is not acceptable to J&K people and PDP,” Mehbooba told reporters after her party launched a membership drive.

    “Should I seek its restoration from Pakistan or any other country? After snatching our identity and special status, the Centre wants us to remain silent. How can we remain silent? The government has given us such a big wound. Can’t we raise the voice and cry.” 

    Mehbooba said J&K had acceded with India on some conditions and the centre broke the conditions by scrapping Article 370. “It is J&K people, who are still holding the hand of India.”

  • No change in PDP’s stand on Article 370 restoration: Mehbooba Mufti

    Express News Service
    SRINAGAR: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti was on Thursday questioned by the officials of Enforcement Directorate (ED) at its Srinagar office for over five hours in connection with a money laundering case. 

    After the questioning, Mehbooba said dissent has been criminalised and asserted there won’t be any change in her party’s stand on the Kashmir issue and Article 370 restoration. Mehbooba had earlier skipped ED summons on March 15 and 22 to New Delhi saying she cannot travel to the national capital as she had got prior commitments that cannot be cancelled.  

    She had also moved the Delhi High Court to quash the ED summons but the court on March 19 refused to stay the summons. Talking to reporters after the marathon questioning, Mehbooba said, “They questioned me over two issues — our ancestral property at Bijbehara and how I used the CM’s secret funds.” “They asked me if I provided money to widows and who was providing the list of widows and who was identifying them,” she said. 

    Alleging that dissent has been criminalised in the country, the former chief minister said, “Whosoever opposes the government is either being booked under sedition or money laundering charges and the NIA, ED and CBI are being used against them.” “The country is not being run according to the Constitution but according to a political party’s agenda,” she said.

  • Do not have de-radicalisation camps of any kind in J&K: Naravane

    Speaking at the India Economic Conclave, Gen Naravane also said the situation in Jammu and Kashmir has improved significantly.

  • India justifies designs of Pakal Dul, Lower Kalnai hydro projects in J-K as Pakistan objects

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Pakistan raised objections to the designs of Pakal Dul and Lower Kalnai hydropower plants in Jammu and Kashmir and sought more information on the projects in Ladakh sanctioned after the abrogation of Article 370 as the Indus Commissioners of the two countries met here on Tuesday, sources said.

    On its part, India justified its stand on the designs.

    The Pakal Dul Hydro Electric Project (1,000 MW) is proposed on the Marusudar river, a tributary of the Chenab river, in Kishtwar district in Jammu and Kashmir.

    The Lower Kalnai project is proposed in Kishtwar and Doda districts.

    The two sides also discussed a host of other issues under the Indus Waters Treaty during the annual Permanent Indus Commission meeting.

    The two-day meeting which started on Tuesday is taking place after a gap of over two years.

    The last meeting took place in Lahore in August 2018.

    The Indian delegation was led by P K Saxena, India’s Indus Commissioner, and his team from the Central Water Commission, the Central Electricity Authority and the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation.

    The Pakistani delegation was led by its Indus Commissioner Syed Muhammad Meher Ali Shah.

    The delegation arrived here on Monday evening.

    This year’s meeting is the first between the two commissioners after the August 2019 nullification of the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution that gave special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

    The meeting also assumes significance as this is the first important engagement between India and Pakistan after militaries of the two countries had announced last month that they would strictly observe a ceasefire along the Line of Control and other sectors.

    In 2019, the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was also bifurcated into union territories — Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.

    India has since cleared several hydropower projects for the region.

    Of these, Durbuk Shyok (19 MW), Shankoo (18.5 MW), Nimu Chilling (24 MW), Rongdo (12 MW), Ratan Nag (10.5 MW) are in Leh; and Mangdum Sangra (19 MW), Kargil Hunderman (25 MW) and Tamasha (12 MW) are Kargil.

    Both Leh and Kargil fall in Ladakh.

    Pakistan has sought information on these projects, sources added.

    The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) warrants the two commissioners to meet at least once a year, alternately in India and Pakistan.

    However, last year’s meeting scheduled to be held in New Delhi in March was cancelled, a first since the treaty came into being, in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

    In July 2020, India had proposed to Pakistan that the meeting for discussing pending issues pertaining to Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) be held virtually in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, but Pakistan insisted on holding talks at the Attari border checkpost.

    However, in response, India said it is not conducive to hold the meeting at the Attari Joint Check Post due to the pandemic.

    With the improvement in situation, this mandatory meeting is being held following all COVID-19-related protocols.

    Under the provisions of Indus Waters Treaty, signed between India and Pakistan in 1960, all the water of the eastern rivers — Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi — amounting to around 33 million acre feet (MAF) annually is allocated to India for unrestricted use.

    The waters of western rivers — Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab — amounting to around 135 MAF annually has been assigned largely to Pakistan.

    According to the treaty, India has been given the right to generate hydroelectricity through run-of-the-river projects on the western rivers subject to specific criteria for design and operation.

    The treaty also gives right to Pakistan to raise objections on design of Indian hydroelectric projects on the western rivers.

  • ‘India must take first step to better bilateral ties’: Imran raises Kashmir issue again

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said that the first step to improve bilateral ties was to address the Kashmir issue, reiterating that it was the only matter stopping improvement of bilateral relations. 

    “We will make efforts but India must take the first step because after August 5, till they take the first step, we cannot move forward. Our issue basically is Kashmir. We can settle it through dialogue and establish a relationship as neighbours,” Khan said at the First Islamabad Security Dialogue.

    This is first time that Imran has spoken about relations with India post the two countries’ reiteration to strictly follow the 2003 ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.

    Imran said that India’s decision to strip Jammu and Kashmir of special status and bifurcate it into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019 was a big blow to ties and was followed by a complete breakdown in the relationship.

    “We still hope that they give the Kashmiris the rights they were given by the UN Security Council to decide their own lives. It will be as beneficial for India as for Pakistan,” he added.

    India last month said that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan in an environment free of terror, hostility and violence.

    India has said the onus is on Pakistan to create an environment free of terror and hostility.

    India has also told Pakistan that “talks and terror” cannot go together and has asked Islamabad to take demonstrable steps against terror groups responsible for launching various attacks on India.

    Khan discussed Pakistan’s vision of comprehensive national security, built on the pillars of traditional and non-traditional security, including his vision for economic prosperity and human welfare.

    Khan dwelt at length on the issue of peace in the region, including peace between Pakistan and India, saying “the unresolved Kashmir issue was the biggest hurdle between the two countries.

    “If India gives the Kashmiris their right under the UN (resolutions), it will be greatly beneficial for Pakistan as well as for India,” he said and added, “India can access Central Asia after peace.”

    Khan said that having a direct route to the Central Asian region will economically benefit India.

    Central Asia is rich in oil and gas.

    Central Asia, in the modern context, generally includes five resource-rich countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

    Pakistan has been unsuccessfully trying to drum up international support against India for withdrawing Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and bifurcating it into two Union territories in August, 2019.

    India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution was its internal matter.

    The Ministry of External Affairs has also underlined that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral and inalienable part of India.

    India and Pakistan had announced on February 25 that they have agreed to strictly observe all agreements on ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and other sectors.

    Ties between India and Pakistan nosedived after a terror attack on the Pathankot Air Force base in 2016 by terror groups based in the neighbouring country.

    Subsequent attacks, including one on Indian Army camp in Uri, further deteriorated the relationship.

    The relationship dipped further after India’s war planes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp deep inside Pakistan on February 26, 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed.

    The relations deteriorated after India announced withdrawing special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcation of the state into two union territories.

    Talking about non-traditional threats to Pakistan, Khan said that climate change, food security and a weak economy were among the biggest challenges in the quest to realise the full concept of security.

    He acknowledged that improving the national economy was the biggest challenge but his government was trying to reduce trade deficit and control inflation so that the financial condition of common people could improve.

    “We cannot become a secure nation when a small rich minority is surrounded by the sea of poor people, National security is achieved when a nation stands up to secure itself,” he said at the dialogue organised by the National Security Division and think-tanks comprising the Advisory Board of National Security Committee.

    Khan also praised all-weather ally China for its “successful” handling of poverty and lifting more than 700 million people out of poverty in the last three decades.

    “It is their big achievement whether you like China or not,” he said.

    Khan said that Pakistan’s 25 per cent population was suffering from extreme poverty and another 25 per cent was just slightly better.

    He said the government already launched Ehsaas programme to give cash to the poor people and another programme of giving targeted subsidies to the poor was being launched.

    Khan also talked about peace in Afghanistan and reiterated support for the ongoing peace process by saying that Pakistan would be the greatest beneficiary of a stable Afghanistan.

    The Islamabad Security Dialogue is envisioned as an annual flagship security forum based on the model of major dialogues on security and international policy.

    The National Security Division, in collaboration with leading think-tanks that are part of its advisory board, has taken this initiative to provide a platform for critical thinking and robust intellectual discourse on some of the most pressing challenges and opportunities being faced by Pakistan and the wider region, according to an official statement.

    The two-day event is being attended virtually by international thinkers and scholars, members from the Federal Cabinet, diplomatic corps, former government officials, academia, think-tanks and civil society members.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • Damaged houses, homeless families: Shopian gunfight leaves trail of destructions

    Express News Service
    SRINAGAR:  The three-day encounter, one of the longest since the scrapping of Article 370 on August 5 2019, at Rawalpora village in Shopian in south Kashmir in which two Jaish militants were killed has left behind a trail of destruction. 

    At least eight residential houses have been damaged, six of them completely, rendering about 10 families homeless in the gunfight that ended on Monday.

    Since Tuesday morning, the youth of the village had been busy dousing the fire and clearing the debris of the houses damaged during the encounter between militants and security forces.

    According to locals, six houses have been completely destroyed in the gunfight, while two others were partially damaged.

    The police have confirmed that three houses were gutted in the firefight.

    “At least 10 families have been rendered homeless by the three-day encounter,” they said.

    The locals said one of the houses belongs to 18-year-old Ziyan Mir, who lost his father two years ago and was earning livelihood for the family.

    “Ziyan and his uncle were living in the house. Both are very poor. Nothing is left in the house. They have nowhere to go now,” a local said.

    Another villager Yasir Ahmad Lone, who had fled from the area after the outbreak of gunfight on Saturday evening, said his uncle’s house was among the properties damaged in the encounter.

    “My uncle is a farmer and is not in a position to rebuild the house. He has lost everything,” he said.

    Many villagers have started collecting donations to help the families who suffered losses in the gunfight.  

    Two JeM militants, including its commander Sajjad Afghani, were killed in the encounter on Monday.

    Police prevent four youth from joining militant ranks

    The police has prevented four youth from central Kashmir from joining the militant ranks.

    A police spokesman said two teenagers had gone missing from their homes in Budgam district on March 14. Police teams were formed to track them.

    “The teams came to know that both the they were in Tral area of Pulwama district. Accordingly, the teams went there and managed to trace and recover both the boys,” he said.

    Two more youth from Ganderbal district were arrested from Karan Nagar-Batamaloo area and later, handed over to their parents, the police said.

  • No information on leak of WhatsApp chat on Article 370 scrapping: Government to Lok Sabha

    A 500-page transcript of a purported WhatsApp conversation, containing details of Balakot air strikes and abrogation of Article 370, went viral in January this year

  • Extension for delimitation panel: J&K parties fear poll delay in Valley

    Express News Service
    SRINAGAR:  With the Central government extending the term of the Delimitation Commission formed to redraw Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir by one year, political parties are apprehensive that this will lead to further delay in Assembly elections.

    Strength of the J&K Assembly is likely to increase by seven seats after the delimitation exercise. The House presently has 83 seats (46 in Kashmir and 37 in Jammu).

    The Assembly was dissolved in June, 2018. Since its special status was scrapped in August, 2019, and bifurcation of the region in two Union Territories, J&K is under direct Central rule.

    “It seems the government does not want to hold J&K Assembly elections anytime soon. The Delimitation Commission remained stationed in Delhi and when its term was about to expire, it visited J&K and sought more time,” J&K Congress spokesman Ravindra Sharma said.

    Senior vice-president of Apni Party, Ghulam Hassan Mir, said the election process will start after the Delimitation Commission completes its work.

    “People want an end to bureaucratic rule and want an elected government. A longer Governor rule cannot be a replacement for an elected government”.

    Senior BJP leader and J&K Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta said: “The  Commission has got an extension. It doesn’t mean elections cannot be held this year.”

    Mirwaiz set free, to address Friday prayers

    J&K authorities on Thursday lifted restrictions on the movement of moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who was under house arrest from August 2019.

    He is all set to address a first Friday congregational prayer since then at Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.

  • India slams Pakistan for raking up Kashmir issue at UN Human Rights Council

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  India lashed out at Pakistan at the United Nations Human Rights Council, saying that Islamabad was providing pensions to UN-listed terrorists.

    Minorities were not being given even their due, India’s first secretary at UN Pawan Badhe said in New Delhi’s right to reply after Pakistan yet again raked up the Kashmir issue.

    “The members of this Council are well aware that Pakistan has provided pensions to dreaded and listed terrorists out of State funds and has the dubious distinction of hosting the largest number of terrorists proscribed by the UN.”  Pakistan is a country in a dire economic situation and it must stop wasting the time of the Council, Badhe added. 

    Islamabad had approached the UNSC for basic expense for 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed, Lakshar-e-Taiba’s leader Zaki-ur- Rehman Lakhvi and Mahmood Sultan Bashiruddin, a Pakistani nuclear engineer.

    “Pakistani leaders have admitted the fact that it has become a factory for producing terrorists. Pakistan has ignored that terrorism is the worst form of human rights abuse and the supporters of terrorism are the worst abusers of human rights,” he said.

    “The Council should ask Pakistan why the size of minorities such as Christians, Hindus and Sikhs has drastically shrunk since independence and why they and other communities such as Ahmadiyyas, Shias, Pashtuns, Sindhis and Baloch, have been subjected to draconian blasphemy laws, systemic persecution, blatant abuses and forced conversions.”

  • All is not well in Congress? Azad rapped for hailing PM, poking at Gandhis

    By Express News Service
    SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI:  A day after the G23 dissenters observed that the Congress was getting weaker, veteran party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for staying true to his roots while indirectly questioning the way the Gandhis function. 

    On his first visit to Jammu and Kashmir after his Rajya Sabha term ended on February 15, Azad said: “I appreciate that he (Modi) does not hide his true self. Those who do so are living in a bubble. I like a lot of things about many leaders. I am from a village and I am very proud of it. Politically, we are opposed to him but at least he does not hide his true (self) reality. We all should be proud of our roots.” 

    However, his comments did not go down well with some party leaders, who countered it was the Modi-led Centre that abrogated Article 370 and made the state a Union Territory after carving out Ladakh.

    Azad’s praise for PM Modi draws flak

    The Congress veteran’s comments came in for criticism even in Tamil Nadu. Party’s Karur MP Jothimani tweeted: “Dear Gulam Nabi Azad Ji you can praise Modi Ji as much as you want. But please remember he tore Kashmir into pieces. This is the state and its people who made what you been for decades along with Congress,” tweeted Congress MP from Tamil Nadu Jothimani.

    Meanwhile, addressing a function organised by Gurjar Desh Charitable Trust in Jammu, Azad said: “I have traveled to over 100 countries and lived in five and seven-star hotels. But when I sit among the people of my village, I love it. Even if the clothes of people of my village are not so clean, it has a different fragrance and it is unmatched,” he added.

    On February 15, an emotional PM Modi had given a tearful farewell to Azad from the Upper House, saying: “I worry that whosoever will take over from Azad will have to fill very big shoes because he cared not only about his party but also the country and the House. This is not a small thing.” The teary-eyed farewell from Modi had led to speculation that Azad may defect to the BJP.

    Azad belongs to the group of 23 Congress leaders, who had written to Sonia Gandhi, seeking an organisational overhaul of the party and a leadership change. The group had met in Jammu on Saturday and said the party had weakened in the past decade and there was an urgent need to strengthen it.

    party’s Punjab unit chief Sunil Jakhar hitting out at ‘G-23′ dissident leaders and asking them to shun the “politics of opportunism”.

    In a statement, the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president referred to remarks of party leaders Kapil Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Raj Babbar, and Anand Sharma, made at a public event in Jammu on Saturday, and said those opposing reforms in the organisation were doing a great disservice not only to the party but also to the country.

    “Come and join me in the protest which would be a refresher course for you all in raising the voice for the people we serve far away from the cozy environs of Rajya Sabha galleries,” Jakhar said, referring to the Punjab Congress’ planned march to “gherao the Punjab Raj Bhavan against the spiraling prices of essential commodities”.

    He said some senior party leaders were “indulging in politics of opportunities” that too at a time when every Congress worker is fighting the grave battle to save and preserve the idea of India “under assault from oppressive central regime”.

    Jakhar said the country needs Congress to engage in politics of struggle to raise the voice of the common man on the street and urged these leaders to take up issues of the public.

    The leaders are part of the dissident group which was given the moniker of G-23 after it wrote to party chief Sonia Gandhi last year demanding an organisational overhaul and internal elections for all posts in the Congress.

    Coming together on one stage, several of these leaders had on Saturday said that the Congress has weakened and they have taken it upon themselves to strengthen it.

    Reacting to it, the party had said that these leaders should join the Congress’ campaign in poll-bound states and strengthen it, instead of becoming active against each other.

    “Those raising their voice against reforms in an organisation which gave them the most potent platform to evolve as leaders, they are today are doing a great disservice not only to the party but also to the country,” Jakhar said.

    Disagreeing with Raj Babbar’s reported “Hum hi Congress hain” comment, Jakhar underlined the “Congress party is older than you and me” and its core philosophy has consistently been of public service only.

    “No doubt, you are Congress,” Jakhar said, adding that such comments do not behoove a senior leader like Babbar.

    On Azad’s statement that he has retired from Rajya Sabha and not from active politics, Jakhar said that “retiring from the upper house never means retiring from politics. Rather, politics has begun now”.

    Referring to Sibal’s statement about the need to further strengthen the party, the Punjab Congress chief invited him to join him in working “for the people on the streets to make the party and the country stronger”.

    This is the time to be with the people, he said and expressed the hope that all these leaders would now come forward for the “politics of struggle” also.

    (With PTI Inputs)