Yesterday, to the surprise of no one, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Modi government’s abrogation of Article 370.
This morning, leading English newspapers – such as The Hindu, The Times of India, The Indian Express, The New Indian Express, Hindustan Times – published versions of the same opinion piece by Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauding the verdict.
Modi wrote that the apex court had “strengthened the spirit of ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’” so that “every child in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh is born with a clean canvas”.
Of the four major English newspapers, only Indian Express placed the piece by Modi on its edit page.
Of the four national English language newspapers, only @IndianExpress placed the signed piece by @narendramodi on #Article370Verdict, sent to all media, on its edit page. @TheHindu @timesofindia @htTweets ran it on news pages. What does this say about their editorial policies?
— Kalpana Sharma (@kalpana1947) December 12, 2023
Several newspapers also carried editorials just a page away. How did they compare to Modi’s epistle?
The Hindu was scathing in an editorial headlined “Ominously anti-federal”. It said the Supreme Court’s verdict “represents not merely judicial deference, but a retreat from the Court’s known positions on federalism, democratic norms and the sanctity of legal processes”.
“The Court’s failure to give its ruling on whether the Constitution permits the reorganisation of J&K into two UTs is an astounding example of judicial evasion. It is shocking that the Court chose not to adjudicate a question that arose directly from the use of Article 3 of the Constitution for the first time to downgrade a State.”
It also said the court’s upholding of carving out of Ladakh “is an invitation to the Union to consider creation of new UTs out of parts of any State”. As a result, future governments at the centre could “impose President’s rule to carry out extraordinary actions through its own parliamentary majority that an elected government in a State may never do”.
The Hindu perhaps stood alone in being this critical. Other newspapers were far milder, focusing on the road ahead.
The Indian Express’s editorial described the verdict as an affirmation of “J&K”s place in the country’s federal polity”.
It said the SC’s “emphasis on the resumption of the democratic processes in J&K should not be lost on the government”. “For the same reason, the erstwhile state’s major political parties, the PDP and National Conference, should shed their post-2019 defeatist approach and make their presence felt in J&K, post Article 370. They should recognise that the clock cannot be turned back.”
It only criticised the court’s interpretation of Article 356 as going against the spirit of the SR Bommai verdict: “It hurts the checks and balances in Centre-state relations and, perhaps, the court will clarify or fine-tune this at a later stage.”
The Telegraph in Kolkata, which did not publish Modi’s op-ed, had an editorial that “hoped” the verdict “is not cited as a precedent by governments with brute electoral majorities to infringe upon India’s federal edifice that is under strain”.
The editorial focused on challenges ahead for the BJP, saying its performance in polls in J&K “could be a bellwether to gauge the people’s verdict on the matter”. Other challenges include “militancy is yet to be rooted out”, “even the Pandit community is said to be unhappy with the BJP’s failure to rehabilitate it”, and the delimitation exercise.
The Times of India’s editorial was almost a listicle: what the court said, where it found fault, and its recommendations.
“Security in J&K has improved since 2019. But terrorists have changed tactics. The number of civilians killed through targeted terror attacks has increased substantially since 2016…The only durable solution is restoration of the political process via early elections,” it said. “India’s successful counterinsurgencies have always been capped by a political process that brought about integration.”
Hindustan Times’s editorial, headlined “For Kashmir, life after Article 370”, said the verdict “should, hopefully, ensure closure in the challenge to the status of Jammu and Kashmir within the Indian Union”.
“The SC’s endorsement of the Centre’s repeal of Article 370 removes a cloud over J&K’s relations with the Union and holds out the message to various stakeholders to accept the new paradigm and move on,” it said.
Deccan Herald said the verdict will “give a major political boost to the government, which sees removing the special status of Kashmir as one of its prime ideological planks”. The challenge for the opposition will be “framing a united and coherent response”.
But what exactly did the Supreme Court say? Read our piece in Newslaundry for the top 10 takeaways from the apex court’s verdict.
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