Party or constitution

 Since August 5, 2019 when the abrogation of Article 370 resulted in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir(J&K) being downgraded and bifurcated into two union territories- Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir – the government led by Narendra Modi has been sparing no efforts to convince the nation and the world that all is hunky dory and business as usual in India. Be it the Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) which has aroused huge opposition and further fuelled venom-filled speeches and condemnations across; even the attempts to justify the clampdown in J&K has not convinced the world that the politics of the day in India serves to secure its people with freedom they achieved from the British. The CAA has seen the Modi government and many of its leaders indulging in hate filled and blatantly communal speeches against a particular religion. Those who oppose the CAA are damned as pro-Pakistan and anti-national. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has also voiced concern over the violence and alleged use of excessive force by security personnel in India against those protesting against the amended Citizenship Act. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has termed the CAA as undermining the commitment to equality before the law enshrined in India’s constitution and also India’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR) and for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination(ERD) to which India is a party. In a highly controversial remark in December and leaving little to imagination, prime minister Narendra Modi said “people who are setting fire (to property) can be seen on TV… They can be identified by the clothes they are wearing.” Even the USA, which is seen to have deepened relations with India under president Donald Trump and prime minister Narendra Modi, has expressed concern about the implications of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Even the situation in J&K has elicited serious concerns in the international fora despite efforts of the Indian government to assuage such apprehensions. The US State Department has red-flagged the continuing detention of political leaders in J&K, undermining the diplomatic positives the Indian government had gained by organising a visit of envoys from 15 countries, including US Ambassador Kenneth Juster, to the troubled region. It may be noted that for the past five months, three former J&K CMs — Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar and Mehbooba Mufti – have been under preventive detention, ever since Article 370 was abrogated. Farooq (82), the National Conference’s sitting MP from Srinagar,who also served as a Union minister, besides having distinguished himself as India’s representative who countered Pakistani propaganda at the 1994 UN convention in Geneva. Even the Supreme Court had rapped the Centre on its knees over the continuing internet shutdown and imposition of Sec.144 CrPC in J&K for the past five months. Sweeping five-month-old restrictions on the internet and the right to assembly that have impacted people’s freedom to conduct their business in Kashmir , the Supreme Court ordered review as it upheld the need to protect constitutional guarantees. It gave the central government and “competent authorities” a week to complete the review into the clampdown that was imposed on the eve of the 5 August revocation of Article 370 that gave the erstwhile state its special status. The protests against such decisions are democratic and the government of the day need to reflect on whether a party’s manifesto is supreme over the constitution.