Chairman of Press Council of India and former Justice of the Supreme Court of India Justice Markandey Katju
ARTICLE 370- Kashmir ( or any other state in India) must never be allowed to secede from India
Markandey Katju
A Kashmiri political leader recently gave a veiled threat that if Article 370 of the Constitution is repealed Kashmir will secede from India. Another Kashmiri political leader said that amnesty should be granted to stone pelters in Kashmir. All this has been shown recently on T.V. screens.
My own view is that whether Article 370 is deleted or not, whether stone pelters are granted amnesty or not, Kashmir ( or any other state in India) must never be allowed to secede from India.
In this connection, it may be pointed out that Article 1(1) of the Indian Constitution states that India is a ‘Union of States’. Thus, India is not a confederation but a union of states. Hence no state has a right to secede from it, and the union is indissoluble.
If Kashmir has the right to secede, then Nagaland, Mizoram, Tamilnadu, etc. may also claim the same right. What then will happen to India ? It will be broken into pieces. This must never be allowed.
When the southern states of U.S.A. claimed the right to secede, and in 1861 formed their own government (the Confederate States of America) President Abraham Lincoln declared that they will not be allowed to secede, and he went to war on this issue. Similarly, we must never allow any state in India to secede, and must maintain our unity at any cost.
As regards the Kashmir problem, I have said several times that the only solution to the Kashmir problem is reunification of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh under a strong, secular, modern minded government which does not tolerate religious extremism of any kind and works hard to abolish poverty, unemployment, lack of healthcare, good education etc for the masses and raises their standard of living.
- See more at: http://www.hastakshep.com/english/opinion/2014/05/31/article-370-kashmir-or-any-other-state-in-india-must-never-be-allowed-to-secede-from-india#.U4l_Q3I70rs
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