Article 370 can't be scrapped in JK : Baig

Jammu, Mar 5: Discounting the possibility of the scrapping of Article 370 which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, PDP today said the scheme of the Indian Constitution itself was a safeguard against any such attempt.

"There is no way Article 370 can be done away with without snapping the constitutional ties between the state and the Union," PDP MLA and former deputy chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig said participating in the debate on motion of thanks to the Governor's address to the state legislature.

Explaining the context of Article 370 and the special position granted to the state, Baig said it was no concession to Jammu & Kashmir but a recognition of the distinct historical, cultural and ethnic status of the erstwhile princely state which had decided to throw its lot with a democratic India at the time of Independence.

He said the Article had virtually assumed a permanent status as it could be scrapped only through a resolution by the constituent Assembly of J&K which had ceased to exist.

He said Kashmir had been at receiving end of "unfair, discriminatory and at times inhuman conduct of powers that held it through force ever since Mughals occupied it."

PTI