'Enough is enough': Jaggi Vasudev demands ordinance to scrap Article 370 in wake of Pulwama attack

In the wake of the Pulwama terror attack, spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev on Tuesday demanded that the Narendra Modi government revoke Article 370, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir.Sadhguru tweeted that it was time for the government to strike down Article 370 and integrate Jammu and Kashmir with India and tagged the official account of the Prime Minister's Office.According to his Twitter bio, the account is managed by Isha Foundation volunteers, and tweets by Sadhguru himself are signed "Sg".Because of Article 370, the provisions laid down in the Constitution are applicable to whole of India except Jammu and Kashmir and the Parliament has limited power to make laws for the state.Sadhguru's reaction drew massive support from Twitter users. Abrogation of Article 370 is a long-standing demand of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. The concept of an ordinance to kill the Article is perhaps a first. Coming in the circumstances it has — after the Pulwama attack — and from whom it has, this is bound to cause quite a stir and ignite old debates about the constitutional possibilities of erasing an Article that is intrinsically linked to The Instrument of Accession.The argument whether Article 370 can be amended, repealed or abrogated rests upon the fact that the section had become inoperative after the State’s constituent Assembly framed its Constitution, and then the Assembly itself ceased to exist. Further, it has been argued by the legal experts that abrogating Article 370 will weaken the legal basis for Jammu and Kashmir to be part of India, as the accession was linked to its getting special status.The actual roadblock for abrogation of Article 370 lies in its subsection 3 wherein it states that the Article can be abrogated only by the president on declare the Article to cease to exist but only on the recommendation of Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir.  As constituent Assembly was dissolved in 1957 and never reconstituted, whereas the provision of 370(3) remains intact. However, the fact remains that amendment power of the Parliament is only restricted by the power of judicial review entrusted to the judiciary.Rajasthan soldier welfare minister and Congress leader Pratap Singh Khachariyawas also demanded the scrapping of Article 370 on Tuesday. ""The NDA government should have withdrawn Article 370. It is high time now and the Centre should take the decision in this regard," he told reporters. The repeal of the Article requires a two-thirds majority in Parliament.The Supreme Court on Monday said that it would look into the plea seeking urgent hearing of a PIL by BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay challenging the constitutional validity of Article 370. Upadhyay, in his plea which was filed in September 2018, contended that the special provision was "temporary" in nature at the time of framing of the Constitution and Article 370(3) lapsed with the dissolution of the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly on 26 January, 1957.With inputs from PTI