Modi govt abrogates Article 370: Unexpected coup or well-planned strategy?

It would be naïve to assume that the move to abrogate Article 370 came overnight under the cloak of secrecy

A week before the Pulwama attack in February, a select group of officials of the ministry of home affairs was busy drafting a notification in complete secrecy. The notification, duly approved by the then home minister, Rajnath Singh, was all set to be put up. It would have effectively effaced Article 35(A), which defines the “permanent residents” of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) entailing their special privileges.

The move was seen in the government as a gamechanger in the wake of the results of the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost power. The