Appropriate time to repeal Article 370: Panun Kashmir

Panun Kashmir, an organisation representing Kashmiri Pandits today welcomed the recent ruling by Supreme Court that Jammu and Kashmir has "no vestige" of sovereignty outside the Indian Constitution and said that "it is the most appropriate time to repeal Article 370".
"Panun Kashmir demands that now that the Supreme Court of India has defined in unambiguous terms the political status of Jammu and Kashmir, as also the political status of its citizens vis-a-vis rest of fellow Indians, it is the most appropriate time to repeal Article 370 lock, stock, and barrel", PK Convener Agnishakher told reporters here today.
Panun Kashmir welcomes the historic judgement the Supreme Court of India pronounced on December 17, which upheld the applicability of Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFAESI Act) to Jammu and Kashmir, he said.

On Dec 17, the apex court had observed that Jammu and Kashmir has "no vestige" of sovereignty outside the Indian Constitution and its own, while the citizens of the state are "first and foremost" citizens of India.
The apex court observed this while terming as "wholly incorrect" the conclusion arrived at by Jammu and Kashmir High Court which had held that the state has "absolute sovereign power" to legislate laws touching the rights of its permanent residents regarding their immovable properties.
"The Supreme Court judgement has reiterated the most fundamental and cardinal fact that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and that the provisions of Article 370 embodied in the Constitution of India doesn't in any respect recognise it as a separate entity", Agnishanker said.

He said that the Supreme Court judgement has made it crystal clear that Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir is subordinate to Constitution of India as the Constitution of India is the one and only expression of the authority of Indian State.

"It should be clear to every person in Jammu and Kashmir and rest of India as well as outside India that the State of India is indivisible and its territorial and political character is inviolable", he said.
Hitting out at National Conference for grant of greater autonomy and advocating separatism, Ajay Chrungoo said, "it is said that the separatism in Kashmir has emerged due to weakening of autonomy. But it this autonomy politics which is responsible for separatism in Kashmir".

He said, "autonomy politics is idealogical mother of the separatism and NC its mother. SC Judgement has made it clear that J&K constituent is subordinate to Constitution of India".
"We want everybody to realise that the exclusion of Jammu and Kashmir state from the constitutional organisation of India on the basis of the Muslim majority character of its population is basically communal and has enabled Pakistan to extend the ambit of partition, that formed the basis of its creation, to claim the state of Jammu and Kashmir as its own territory", he said.