The accession of Jammu and Kashmir with the dominion of India signed by Maharaja Hari Singh was subject to two main conditions. First, Kashmir will be given “the right of self determination” after the restoration of normalcy. Second, the Government of India will exercise limited control over the state confined only to defense, communication and foreign affairs. This limited control over the State was extended by article 306A of the Indian constitution. The Delhi Agreement of 1952 ratified Kashmir’s autonomy and enshrined Article 306A as 370 of the Indian constitution. This article has been in controversy ever since. The Hindus from Jammu launched a massive campaign against this ‘Special Status ’under the banner of Praja Parishad. They demanded that the State of Jammu and Kashmir should be merged with the Union of India or Jammu should be detached from the rest of the State and granted a Union Territory status.

This agitation provoked Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah to challenge the validity of the accession. This resulted in his dismissal and arrest. Bakhshi Ghulam Mohammad was then installed as Prime Minister of the State. It was during Bakhshi’s regime, that the Presidential order of 1954 empowered the Indian Government to act on all matters in the Union List and not just defense, foreign affairs and communication. This was the beginning of the end of autonomy for the State.

Similarly, the constitutional amendment of 1958 brought the state under the control of the Central administration, including extension of Articles 356 and 357 of the Indian Constitution in 1964-65 during Sadiq’s tenure. Article 249 was also made applicable to the state. The designations of Head of the State (Sadr-i-riyasat) and Prime Minister were also changed to Governor and Chief Minister like in any Indian State. Furthermore, the Governor is to be appointed by the Centre rather than be a nominee of the elected Kashmir legislature. Thus, the inherent right of autonomy was snatched away from the people of Kashmir in a systematic way by the mid-1960s and even the Indira-Abdullah Accord of 1975 could not restore it.

After the eruption of militancy in 1989, the Indian Government promised autonomy once again. The objective behind this offer was to check the secessionist trend in Kashmir and create a favourable situation for the pro-accession parties and hold the elections. Though the situation was not favourable, yet dates for the parliamentary elections were fixed in 1996. The major regional and pro-accession party of the state, the National Conference, threatened to boycott these elections as its president Farooq Abdullah insisted that the quantum of autonomy should be decided before the polls. However the Central government remained adamant that the question of autonomy would be decided with the elected representatives of the State.

Farooq Abdullah, after winning the assembly elections, in 1996 concentrated on his first priority of defining, deciding and negotiating a package of autonomy for the state and, within this package of autonomy, the quantum of regional autonomy for the three regions of the state. It was with this intention that the government of J & K passed the autonomy resolution in 2001; but this resolution was turned down by the BJP led NDA government at the Centre. This negative attitude of the Central government towards the restoration of autonomy to the state strengthened the belief of Kashmiris that any sort of political solution is a distant dream. It also made the National Conference, which has been an ally in the NDA government at the Centre to pay a high price in the 2002 Assembly elections. In these elections the National Conference was voted out of power, and a Congress-PDP coalition government was formed in the state.         

Now if the Government of India goes back on its promise of autonomy, whom are the people of Kashmir going to trust? The relationship has to be based on trust. In any case autonomy will not be a threat to India, so the people of Kashmir believe.

India will have to grant real autonomy to all her states, including Kashmir. The restoration of autonomy to Kashmir within the framework of the Delhi Agreement of 1952 would give a sense of fulfillment to the people of Kashmir. The people must be assured that no erosion of the state’s autonomy in terms of Article 370 will take place. But the real question is whether the Kashmiris will get autonomy or whether it will elude them once again. The people must be reassured that their democratic aspirations and identity will be respected in full measure.