Armed with placards and shouting slogans against the BJP, a crowd of protestors gathered at Bengaluru’s Town Hall against the Presidential order on Article 370 that withdrew the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir.
In a joint statement, students, lawyers and activists, said, “We stand with the people of Jammu and Kashmir in these dark times. We urge all the people of India to fight these illegal amendments, to fight to preserve our constitution which Babasaheb Ambedkar fought to give us”.
The gathering, which was peaceful, accused the BJP and the RSS of running a “fascist regime” and staging a “coup against the Constitution”. Calling it a “murder of democracy,” they called the “stealthy and illegal manner” in which the government of India has moved to amend the Constitution “shocking and condemnable”.
“The entire population of a state has been cut off from the country through brute force and illegal means. Parliament is being rushed into discussing and voting on a constitutional amendment in two hours. Is this any way to conduct parliament proceedings? Is this the democracy our forefathers fought for?” the joint statement said.
It added, “Article 370 is a permanent – not temporary – provision of the Constitution that assures Jammu and Kashmir autonomy. Article 370 is nothing but a constitutional recognition of the conditions mentioned in the Instrument of Accession that the ruler of Kashmir signed with the Government of India in 1948. It reflects the contractual rights and obligations of two parties. Scrapping the Article without consulting the Jammu and Kashmir constituent assembly is equivalent of going back on our word. It is cheating the people of Jammu and Kashmir.”
They further said the authors of the Constitution were cognizant of the fact that the document accords Jammu and Kashmir an exceptional status and it was free of any doubt.
They cited the address made by N Gopalaswami Ayyangar, the chief author of Article 370, to the Constituent Assembly on October 17, 1949: “Kashmir’s conditions are… special and require special treatment. It is one of our commitments to the people and the Government of Kashmir, that in matters outside the scope of the Instrument of Accession no additions would be made, except with the consent of the Constituent Assembly which may be called in the state for the purpose of framing its Constitution.”
Other than the BJP and its allies in the NDA, the protestors also criticised the stand taken by other parties like the AAP, AIADMK, BSP and YSRCP which helped in passing of the Bill. The protestors dispersed just minutes before the Rajya Sabha passed the bill to reorganise Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories.