Centre did not renew President’s rule in J&K in time. It is a gaffe that has had dire consequences | The Indian Express

Centre did not renew President’s rule in J&K in time. It is a gaffe that has had dire consequences | The Indian Express

Written by Gopal Sankaranarayanan |Updated: September 4, 2019 10:24:14 am

The writer is an advocate at the Supreme Court of India.

Centre did not renew President’s rule in J&K in time. It is a gaffe that has had dire consequences

While the integration of the land and its people is necessary, it is cardinal that the world’s most resplendent democracy heed constitutional process, because without it, we are back in the dark days of the Emergency.

Security personnel guard various points on Eid-al-Adha after the scrapping of the special constitutional status for Kashmir by the Indian government, in Srinagar, August 12, 2019. (Express Photo by Shuaib Masoodi)

As the miasma around Article 370 pervades the public discourse, most conversations appear to revolve around the issues of broken promises, self-determination and lack of legislative consent. Of course, reams of processed wood pulp have attempted to navigate the readers through the jungle that is constitutional law, and for the most part, it appears that while integration of the state of Jammu and Kashmir with the federation may be unexceptionable, it is perhaps the process adopted that has raised questions (and hackles). The object of the present article is to look, not at the presidential orders from earlier this month, but at what formed the foundation of the entire exercise — the imposition of President’s Rule in December 2018.