Centre's Article 370 affidavit in SC holds no legal value, only political, claim Mehbooba, Omar

Mehbooba Mufti

Former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah on Monday criticised the Centre's affidavit in the Supreme Court on the abrogation of Article 370 saying it lacked logic and had on constitutional backing. "The Centre's defence lacks logic ' (is) illegal & unconstitutional abrogation of Article 370," PDP President Mehbooba Mufti said in a tweet.

"Brute majority was used to subvert the Indian constitution that extended guarantees to the people of J&K & GOI also violated earlier rulings of Hon'ble SC which held that only J&K's constituent assembly could recommend the removal of Article 370 to the President of India," she said. The once-BJP ally also said that "drum beating about an enforced silence" in the region cannot be used to "justify constitutional harakiri."

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah also took to Twitter saying the arguments put forth by the government were political and had little in the way of legality. "These are definitely political arguments the BJP/Union Govt can make to sell their decision to the voter but they are not legal arguments. "The entire case in the SC is about the illegality & unconstitutionality of what was done on 5th Aug 2019, not whether the Govt has a strong enough political case," Abdullah said.

Earlier in the day, PDP leader Naeem Akhtar and CPI-Marxist leader M Y Tarigami too slammed the government's case in Supreme Court calling its version far from the truth. "I don't think there is any constitutional provision on terrorism. Centre has no constitutional or legal defence available for its unconstitutional actions in Jammu and Kashmir. So they have taken this terrorism ground," Akhtar told PTI.

He said there were many states where the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, or AFSPA, was in force but only Jammu and Kashmir was singled out as particularly vulnerable. "They have not degraded those states to the level of Union Territories. They have not punished the people of that state. They have only singled out Jammu and Kashmir," Akhtar said. The PDP leader said the party had full faith in the judiciary.

"We have full faith in the judiciary and this august forum has already twice upheld the Article 370 as a permanent feature of Indian Constitution in the absence of a constituent assembly in J&K which has ended its role in 1954," he added. Tarigami said even a cursory look at the Centre's Supreme Court affidavit will reveal it is contrary to the facts.

"Truth is being obfuscated. Don't we know how peaceful Jammu and Kashmir was before 1990?" Tarigami said. "Why did violence erupt? The reason was that special status given to JK was eroded and the inimical elements got a chance to disrupt. "What happened in 2019? They jailed all the leadership and revoked the special provisions of the constitution with a stroke of a pen," he said.

"We don't want enforced peace. We want a democracy where people's rights are protected. That's why we have approached the SC for restoration of the rights," Tarigami said. Only restoration of special provisions of the constitution can bring peace and prosperity to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, he stressed. "Was there no tourism before 2019? Was there no peace before? Why has there been no election since 2014? How did BJP come to become part of the government in Jammu and Kashmir for the first time in 2014? Because there was peace," the leftist leader added.

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