Removing Article 370 is a gutsy decision

Gopalaswami Ayyangar, a minister in Nehru’s cabinet, a former dewan of Mararaja Hari Singh of Jammu & Kashmir and who principally drafted the Article 370 argued in the Constituent Assembly of J&K in 1949 that unlike other princely states, J&K was not ripe for integration with India.

- Buroshiva Dasgupta

The conditions were “unusual and abnormal” and part of the state’s territory was in the hands of "rebels and enemies”. So, Article 370, from its inception, was a ‘temporary provision’. However, it has continued for 70 years till it was nullified on August 5, 2019.

In a democracy, equality is a major component and ‘special privileges’ for certain people or for certain states are by definition unfair. But circumstances have led to endowing such privileges not just to J&K but to some other states as well. The removal of special privileges by scrapping Article 370 may have caused an uproar but it was inevitable, some day or the other – if we believe in democracy. That it took 70 years is unfortunate. Some are “more equal than others” can only be a rule for an authoritarian country.