What is Article 370?

Day 217 / 365

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 24 hours, you must have heard or read some news regarding Kashmir and Article 370. I woke up at 5 AM today and as usual went to twitter to see the status of Mumbai rains, and to my surprise, I saw #kashmirBleeds and #kashmirParFinalFight trending. At the time it seemed that the government had deployed military forces in Kashmir, put a curfew and stopped mobile internet services. All this came after tourists had been asked to get out of Kashmir.

Within a few hours, it became clear that all this was done as a precautionary measure, as the government was planning to pass a bill that was sure to attract some controversy. That bill was to scrap Article 370.

About Article 370

Article 370 of our constitution gave a special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. At the time of its making, the article was meant to be a temporary one, but with time it became a permanent feature of the constitution.

This Article, along with article 35 (A) meant that a different set of laws applied to the residents of J&K, including laws around citizenship, business and owning of property.

What's next?

Today, a presidential order has been issued that revokes this article. This means that all the laws of our constitution will now hold true in Jammu and Kashmir as well. Also, a bill has been passed in the Rajya Sabha which makes Kasmir a Union Territory, and Ladakh as a separate Union Territory.

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — Chips or Magnetic Strips in Debit Cards- Which is better?