Srinagar: The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) seeking for J&K’s special status has said the union government’s narrative that Article 370 was temporary and hampered overall development is a lie.
The 35 White Paper , released by PAGD leaders in Srinagar on Saturday said the “narrative build up” is far from reality and “belied even by the official statistics.”
The PAGD headed by Farooq Abdullah has also appealed to the Indian Parliament, all secular democratic parties and civil society at large to realize the serious consequences of the abrogation of Article 370.
The paper claims the State of Jammu and Kashmir was the only State amongst the princely States that “negotiated terms of accession” with the dominion of India.
“The parties agreed on a constitutional mechanism to govern relations between the State and Union of India in tune with conditions subject to which the Ruler acceded to the dominion of India and also having regard to the agenda of the political party that led the freedom struggle. The Constituent Assembly of India was busy framing constitution for the Country and it was found appropriate to have the agreed mechanism made part of the constitution. The Constituent Assembly after due deliberation and discussion with complete consensus incorporated Article 370 in the Constitution. The provision was to govern the relations between Jammu and Kashmir and the Union,” the Paper said.
“The Delhi Agreement 1952 reaffirmed that while in case of all other states the residuary powers vested with the Centre, as regards Jammu and Kashmir the residuary powers would vest with the State. The State was, thus, promised limited or residuary sovereignty,” it read.
The paper said scrapping Article 370 was an assault on the constitution. It has gone into details into how the centre allegedly fiddled with the constitution to scrap the special status.
“The Central Government, fully conscious that August 2019 decisions was constitutionally impermissible and morally un-condonable, weaved a number of mistruths, untruths and half- truths to justify and market the unconstitutional decisions. The special status and autonomy promised to the State was said to have been of temporary nature, to have been an impediment in welfare legislation, disadvantageous to overall some segments of the society, promoted regional imbalance while hampering overall development. The narrative build up, as the a brief overview would reveal, is far from reality and belied even by the official statistics,” the paper said.
“Ever since the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A in August 2019, alongside the suppression of dissent and democratic functioning and partly to divert attention from that, the spokespersons and supporters of the government at the Centre and in Jammu and Kashmir have launched a propaganda blitz on matters relating to the economic development of the region. The effort aims to paint a picture of poor economic performance in the state of J&K prior to August 2019 and argue that steps initiated since August 2019 are transforming the region, advancing economic development and improving,” it said.
The paper said the annual state GDP between 2011-12 to 2018-19 periods, prior to dilution of article 370, was 10.5 percent, “higher than that in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Punjab.”
The paper claims the state had an extremely favorable human development record to its credit and its human development index in 2017 was higher than most states including Gujarat.
“J&K stood eighth in terms of poverty rate (10.35)%. Goa had the lowest poverty rate of 5.09%, while Chhattisgarh had the highest poverty rate of 39.93%. The national average was 21.92%. Jammu and Kashmir ranked third out of 22 States in terms of life expectancy. The state had an average life expectancy of 73.5 between 2012-16. In Kerala with the highest life expectancy the figure was 75.1 and national average was 68.7,” it reads.
It said the union government has also spread the canard about mis-governance prior to 2019.
As a way forward, the PAGD seeks “deep introspection and course correction” of the August 2019 “assault on the special status and territorial integrity” of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
