the state constitution took effect on 26 January, 1958.

The result is that many central laws are applied to the state in modified form. For instance, the state Assembly has a six-year term, the RTI law has been weaker than elsewhere, and a version of the infamous MISA law of the Emergency remains in force in the state as the Public Safety Act.

Major tug-of-war

Article 370 and 35-A have been a shibboleth for state-based parties, which insist that it must remain on the statute. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah has even stated that the state’s accession to India hinges on it.

On the other hand, its removal was a part of the BJP's 2014 manifesto, although this objective was put aside under the terms of the agenda of alliance when the PDP-BJP coalition was formed.

Article 35-A is more crucial in terms of Kashmiris' sense of separate identity. The rhetoric of both sides has until recently remained focused on the enabling provision, Article 370, largely because that was the main theme of Syama Prasad Mookerjee. Article 35-A was only inserted the year after Mookerjee died.

Primary agenda

Mookerjee was the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), which was backed by the RSS. The party was formed in 1951, primarily to oppose the special provisions for Jammu and Kashmir. He had resigned from Nehru's first cabinet in 1950, to launch a Hindutva-based political party backed by the RSS.

The entire issue has come into public focus on Saturday since Amit Shah chose to launch his party's agenda for the next elections on Mookerjee's death anniversary.

Mookerjee’s death had generated a wave of horror across the country. To press his nascent party’s agenda, he had marched across the state border in defiance of the permit that was then required by the state government. Mookerjee maintained that the permit was a form of visa, and that it underlined that the state was not a full and permanent part of India. He was ready to defy the law and go to jail to press his point.

A few days after he was jailed, Mookerjee fell ill and died in jail. That has always been an issue in the minds of Hindutva activists, who hold — as Shah publicly stated on Saturday — that he was poisoned.