Correcting past blunders

Abrogating J&K's special status may face legal challenge

By moving to revoke by Presidential fiat provisions of Article 370 granting people of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) a special status, and introducing Bills to bifurcate the state into Union Territories, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance has moved boldly and decisively to fulfil a prominent element of its election manifesto. However, several issues flow from Monday’s developments, the principal one being whether the manner in which the government has sought to alter J&K’s status will promote the kind of integration that its political project had envisaged. There can be no denying that in seeking to abrogate the 72-year-old statute