Hailing the Centre's decision to abolish Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, former Union home secretary Madhav Godbole on Monday described it as a "good" and "long overdue" step.
However, the former bureaucrat criticised the BJP-led government's decision to bifurcate the border state into two Union Territories (UTs) - Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
The move was "retrograde" as the whole concept of a Union Territory has "outlived" its utility, the retired IAS officer maintained.
"This (scrapping of Article 370) is very good step... this was long overdue...unfortunately there was no political will earlier as this action goes to the root of the (Kashmir) problem," said Godbole.
He said Articles 370 and 35A, dealing with special status of J&K and certain privileges granted to its residents, were carried forward for no reason as the provisions were transitional in nature.
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"Because this provision (Article 370) was allowed year after year, the interpretation which was made among the common Kashmiris was that J&K was not a part of India and that was the worst part of it," he said.
Godbole said 25 years ago, Parliament had passed an unanimous resolution stating that J&K was an integral part of India and today's action was just a follow-up on what was said over two decades ago.
While hailing the move to do away with the contentious Article, Godbole said some problems are going to follow this important decision.
"In the next couple of days, there will be several petitions challenging the decision in the Supreme court, citing that the President did not have the powers (to scrap the Article) thus it is unconstitutional. This is something government needs to deal with," he cautioned.
The former IAS officer said the government's first priority should be to explain to the people of Kashmir Valley the rationale behind the decision.
"There is a misunderstanding among the people of Valley that if this provision goes, there will be a catastrophe.
"So efforts should be made to clear the air and to do this government should rope in members of civil society," said the distinguished civil servant, who served as Union home secretary in early 1990s.
He said the people of J&K should be taken into confidence and given assurance that with the abrogation of the decades-old constitutional provision, their jobs or land ownership will not be in a jeopardy.
"In fact, the government should undertake confidence- building measures to convey the message that the decision is in fact in the interest of Kashmir Valley and not against it," he added.
Godbole, however, said the concept of a Union Territory has become outdated.
"This whole concept is so retrograde...the concept of UT has outlived its utility. May be after independence, it had some merits but after so many years, it does not hold any sense that a region is ruled by Delhi.
"The message 'we will rule from Delhi, we do not trust the locals', itself is an antithesis of democracy," he said.
He said converting a full-fledged state into Union Territories is really unheard of.
"We all should put pressure on the government to reverse the decision (of reorganising J&K into two UTs)," he said.
In fact, Godbole said, he is of the opinion that all the existing Union Territories should be abolished and merged with their adjoining states.
"The decision (to scrap Article 370) is going to catch attention of the international community and our neighbours Pakistan and China are not going to keep quiet...so in such a condition, why add to problems (by creating UTs)," he said.
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