The scrapping of Article 370 and 35 A of the Indian constitution which granted special status to IOK and forbade buying of property by the outsiders in the valley respectively, was very much on the cards since Modi became Prime Minister of India in 2014 as it was part of his election manifesto. However it could not be implemented due to lack of the required numerical strength in the Indian parliament. The landslide victory in the 2019 elections made it possible for him to fulfill his agenda, inspired by the Hindutva philosophy.
The action by Modi is not something out of the blue. It has its roots in the Independence movement. A peep into the history of the movement makes it abundantly clear that the Hindu leadership has all along been in favour of maintaining integrity of India and assimilation of the princely states into the Indian union. The Congress session of Haripura in 1938 propounded this concept in these words “The Congress stands for the same political, social and economic freedom in states as in the rest of India and considers the states as integral parts of India which cannot separated. The Purna Swaraj or complete independence, which is the objective of the Congress, is for the whole of India, inclusive of states, for the integrity and unity of India must be maintained in freedom as it has been maintained in subjection”
However after having failed to thwart partition of Indian into two separate states as a result of the movement by the Indian Muslims under the indomitable leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Indian leadership made it sure that the all the princely states-- which were made independent through The Indian Independence Act and authorized to decide on their own to which new dominion they wanted to join or remain independent--- stayed with India. They used coercion, blackmail and even military force to achieve their objective. The Muslim rulers of Hyderabad and Junagadh decided to accede to Pakistan but India refused to accept their proposition maintaining that they were the states with majority Hindu population and negated the two nation theory propounded by Jinnah. They annexed them through military action. But when Raja Partap Singh the ruler of Kashmir, with 95% Muslim population signed the controversial instrument of accession, India by taking a somersault on its stance regarding demographic features accepted it with welcoming arms because it fitted into their much cherished creed of unity of India.
However the move backfired due to revolt by the people of Kashmir against the decision of the ruler as well as the reaction shown by Pakistan and the consequent war between India and Pakistan. The circumstances forced Nehru to take the issue to the United Nations and when the world body after thorough discussion passed resolutions calling for settlement of the question of accession of Kashmir through a plebiscite held under its auspices, he had no choice but to accept them. Consequently he made repeated commitments to honour the pledge. It was actually a ploy by Nehru to buy time. He reneged on his pledges and maneuvered the accession of the state through the constituent assembly of IOK in 1957 and from that time onward India started calling Kashmir as its integral part. United Nations through its resolution number 91 and 122 rejected the Indian move reiterating resolution of the dispute through a plebiscite.
As the issue lingered on Pakistan and India fought two wars with each other in 1965 and 1971. In the backdrop of the later war an agreement known as Simla Agreement was signed by the two countries in which they agreed to resolve all their disputes including that of Kashmir through bilateral negotiations and also pronounced unequivocally that the relations between the two countries and the agreement would be governed by the UN Charter. India by accepting Kashmir as a disputed territory actually negated its stance of Kashmir being its integral part. Later in the Lahore Declaration in 1998 India again accepted disputed status of Kashmir. However India never exhibited seriousness in resolving the issue.
In the meantime the people of Kashmir after having been frustrated by the Indian refusal to fulfill her obligations as enunciated in the UN Resolutions took up arms to win their freedom in 1989. The movement is still continuing with greater intensity in the backdrop of the killing of Burhan Wani in 2016 notwithstanding the fact that more than ninety thousand people have been killed by the Indian security forces, thousands of women have been gang-raped and thousands of Kashmiri youth have either been maimed or injured by the use of pellets guns. For several months now Kashmir remains cut off from the rest of the world.
In the wake of the revocation of Article 370 and the landing of more Indian troops in Kashmir, the people of Kashmir have vowed to resist the Indian move and fight till the last man to win their freedom. Modi government has in fact been encouraged to perpetrate atrocities on the people of Kashmir and the revocation of Article 370 by the criminal indifference of the world community, particularly the US and its allies who see the events in Kashmir through the prism of the their commercial and strategic interests.
The repeal of Article 370 has added new dimensions to the Kashmir dispute and raised the prospects of armed confrontation between India and Pakistan in case India like what it did after the Pulwama incident, commits the indiscretion of repeating that mistake again. The situation warrants intervention of the UN and the world community not only to pressurize India to stop its oppression against the people of Kashmir but also to use their influence to resolve the issue in conformity with the UN resolutions.
Pakistan has rightly written to the President of the Security Council for convening an emergency session of the Council to discuss the issue on priority basis. China has assured Pakistan of her help in the Security Council. Whether other members of the Security Council will support Pakistani stance or not is not clear as yet. But Pakistan has done well to raise the issue at the world forum. It is incumbent upon UN as a peace making body to use its influence in getting its own resolutions implemented.
Whether the UN and the international community fulfill their obligations or not, the fact remains that Modi has made a fatal mistake and will have to face the consequences as also warned by the leaders of the Congress, the Indian opposition party. Kashmir is stuck like a bone in the Indian throat and it will not be easy for her to swallow it as the Indian government did with other princely states immediately after independence. The move by Modi has catapulted the Kashmiris in the position of final arbiters of the dispute. The pendulum will surely swing in their favour ultimately as it is impossible to subdue independence movements through barrel of the gun.