Asserting that Article 370 of the Constitution of India governs the relationship between Jammu and Kashmir and the Union government, a state minister today said that any attempt to alter it, unilaterally, will have disastrous consequences.
“The Article was conceptualized after 5-month-long deliberations (from May 16, 1949 to October 1949) between the state representatives headed by Sher-i-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and the Central team headed by Jawahar Lal Nehru,” Minister for Finance and Ladakh Affairs Abdul Rahim Rather said.
The matter was then discussed elaborately in the Constituent Assembly of India and it was after a long debate and discussion that Article 370 came into existence, he said.
Addressing a public gathering after laying the foundation stone of the Government High School, Dadompora, Chadoora, Rather said unlike other states of the country, Jammu and Kashmir has a special constitutional position and has a distinction of being the only state in the country to have its own Constitution.
He said Article 370 is a bridge between Jammu and Kashmir and the Union of India and any sort of tempering with it would be detrimental to these relations.
Underscoring the significance of Article 370, Rather said it has been debated at all important fora, including national and international levels, adding that “we are still ready to debate on it, if anybody wants so”.
Rather said that Sher-i-Kashmir had in his inaugural address to the State Constituent Assembly, unambiguously, specified the terms and conditions of the relationship of the state with Indian Union.
“Sheikh Saheb had warned at that time that if this basis of relationship arrived at after a long debate and discussion is unilaterally altered, it will have disastrous consequences for the country,” he said. \
——–PTI