Several
petitions contesting the territory's special status are currently being heard
by the five-judge constitutional bench, which also includes the chief justice
of the Supreme Court. The region was accorded this status after joining the
newly formed India in 1947. These petitions were submitted in advance of the
2019 reforms.
Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, which are both directly
under the control of the federal government and lack their own legislatures,
were split up into two federal territories as a result of the extraordinary
action. The Muslim-majority region is now controlled by bureaucrats without democratic certificates, and as a consequence, it has lost its flag, criminal code, and constitution.
India's highest
constitutional bench is hearing the case. We are optimistic because we are
aware of how solid our case is, said Hasnain Masoodi, an Indian MP from Kashmir
who was one of the first to file a petition opposing the Modi administration's
decision. In addition, he held a judgeship in Kashmir's High Court.
The Indian
Union could be joined using this constitutional framework. He claimed that the
abrogation constituted a betrayal and an attack on our identity.
The 2019
decision, according to Masoodi, a member of the National Conference, the main
political party in the Kashmir area, violates every rule and provision of the
Indian Constitution in both law and spirit.
Soon after,
with administrative reforms made without consulting the populace, Indian
officials started merging Kashmir into the rest of India. Any Indian native who
has lived in the area for at least 15 years or who has studied there for seven
years is eligible to become a permanent resident of the area thanks to a
domicile law that was implemented in 2020. The government loosened restrictions
the same year to allow Indian forces to purchase land in Kashmir and establish
"strategic" villages.
The new
residency privileges have been hailed by Indian officials as a long overdue
step toward promoting more economic growth, but detractors warn that they may
change the demographics of the country.
Even though
it was promised in the 1948 United Nations resolutions that granted Kashmir the
option of joining either Pakistan or India, many Kashmiris worry that an inflow
of outsiders could change the outcomes of a referendum, should one ever occur.
Since 1947, when British sovereignty over the
Indian subcontinent divided the region between the newly formed India and
Pakistan, the magnificent alpine region has experienced little except conflict.
In 1989, Kashmiris erupted into a full-fledged armed rebellion against
India to unite with Pakistan or achieve total independence.
The majority
of Muslim residents of Kashmir support the aim to unite the region, either
under Pakistani sovereignty or as a separate state. Pakistan is accused of supporting
Kashmiris by New Delhi, a claim that Islamabad refutes. In the fighting,
tens of thousands of civilians, revolutionaries, and government troops have
perished.
While
minority Hindu and Buddhist populations originally hailed the move, they later
expressed concern about losing land and jobs in the picturesque Himalayan
region. Many Muslim ethnic Kashmiris saw the 2019 amendments as an invasion.
While
extremely unpopular in Kashmir, the Modi government was applauded for making
good on a long-standing Hindu nationalist promise to eliminate the unique
privileges enjoyed by the unrest in the region.
The
inhabitants of the region have, however, been largely silenced and had their
civil freedoms restricted in New Delhi's efforts to create what it refers to as
"Naya Kashmir," or a "new Kashmir," since India has shown
no tolerance for any sort of peaceful protest.
Major
challenges have also been confronted by Kashmir's media. Since then, a lot of
journalists in the area have experienced intimidation, harassment, calls to
police stations, and occasionally even arrests. A new media strategy that aims
to regulate news was also put into place by the Modi administration.
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