New Delhi: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has strongly backed his government’s controversial 2019 decision to revoke the partial autonomy of illegally occupied Indian Jammu and Kashmir, days after the territory’s newly elected lawmakers sought to restore it.
“Only Babasaheb Ambedkar’s constitution will work in Kashmir… There is no force in the world that can restore Article 370 (partial autonomy) in Kashmir,” Modi said, referring to one of the founding fathers of the Indian constitution.
Modi was speaking at a state election rally in the western state of Maharashtra, where Ambedkar belongs.
Modi’s BJP government abrogated partial autonomy in 2019 and divided the state into two federally administered regions of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh – a move opposed by several political groups in the Himalayan region.
IIOJK held its first local elections in a decade in September and October, and newly elected lawmakers passed a resolution this week seeking restoration.
The region’s ruling National Congress Party had promised in its election manifesto that it would restore partial autonomy, although the authority to do so rests with Modi’s federal government.
The new legislators in the IIOJK can legislate on local issues like other Indian states, except for matters related to public order and police. They will also need the approval of a federally appointed official for all policy decisions that have financial implications.
Under a system of partial autonomy, the IIOJK had its own constitution and the freedom to make laws on all issues except foreign affairs, defense, and communications.
The troubled region, where separatists have been fighting security forces since 1989, is the only Muslim-majority region in India.
The region has been the focus of a territorial dispute with Pakistan since the two neighbors gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Both India and Pakistan claim all of Jammu and Kashmir, but they partly govern, and have fought two of their three wars over the region.