BACKGROUND GUIDE

BACKGROUND GUIDE
Dear Delegates,

Welcome to Lok Sabha!

The Committee will be staffed by the Executive Board –
 Nimisha Pathak
 Mansi Jain
 Hrishikesh Jaiswal.
 Message from the Executive board

“Lok Sabha is the lower house of the parliament of India, and is the main deliberative,
policymaking and representative institution”. Lok sabha has most important place in a
Democracy.It is the basic place where the people elected from various parts of our country
gathered to have discussion about various agendas. The ruling government declare there
plans, ,schemes right here for the country and amendment in constitutional laws are made
here. New laws are made here and implemented only after proper invigilation by Hon'ble
President. In brief , Lok Sabha as the meaning signifies ,House of People” particularly aims
to work for the welfare of each and every citizen of India.
Welcome to the simulation, the agenda we have at hand is not only crucially sensitive, but
also extremely important to deal with in all immediacy.

We hope that you will find this background guide useful in your preparation for the
conference. You are also encouraged to do your own research to explore in-depth your own
Member policies. Please keep in mind the fact that the scope of the debate is not limited to
the content given in the background guide. The delegates are encouraged to research upon,
analyze, determine the effective and ineffective policies.

Here’s wishing you all the best.

-Lok Sabha Executive Board Member
ARTICLE 370 OF THECONSTITUTION OF INDIA

Introduction to Article 370 and it's importance in keeping Jammu and

Kashmir, a part of India?
Article 370 of the Indian constitution is an article that gives autonomous status to the state of
Jammu and Kashmir. The article is drafted in Part XXI of the Constitution: Temporary,
Transitional and Special Provisions.[1] The Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir,
after its establishment, was empowered to recommend the articles of the Indian constitution
that should be applied to the state or to abrogate the Article 370 altogether. After the J&K
Constituent Assembly later created the state's constitution and dissolved itself without
recommending the abrogation of Article 370, the article was deemed to have become a
permanent feature of the Indian Constitution.
1. According to the Constitution of India, Article 370 provides temporary provisions to the
state of Jammu and Kashmir, granting it special autonomy.
2. The article says that the provisions of Article 238, which was omitted from the
Constitution in 1956 when Indian states were reorganised, shall not apply to the state of
Jammu and Kashmir.
3. Dr BR Ambedkar, the principal drafter of the Indian Constitution, had refused to draft
Article 370.
4. In 1949, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had directed Kashmiri leader Sheikh
Abdullah to consult Ambedkar (then law minister) to prepare the draft of a suitable article to
be included in the Constitution.
4. In 1949, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had directed Kashmiri leader Sheikh
Abdullah to consult Ambedkar (then law minister) to prepare the draft of a suitable article to
be included in the Constitution.
5. Article 370 was eventually drafted by Gopalaswami Ayyangar
6. Ayyangar was a minister without portfolio in the first Union Cabinet of India. He was also
a former Diwan to Maharajah Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir
7. Article 370 is drafted in Amendment of the Constitution section, in Part XXI, under
Temporary and Transitional Provisions.
8. The original draft explained "the Government of the State means the person for the time
being recognised by the President as the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir acting on the
advice of the Council of Ministers for the time being in office under the Maharaja's
Proclamation dated the fifth day of March, 1948."
9. On November 15, 1952, it was changed to "the Government of the State means the person
for the time being recognised by the President on the recommendation of the Legislative
Assembly of the State as the Sadr-i-Riyasat (now Governor) of Jammu and Kashmir, acting
on the advice of the Council of Ministers of the State for the time being in office."
10. Under Article 370 the Indian Parliament cannot increase or reduce the borders of the
state.

Purpose
The state of Jammu and Kashmir's original accession, like all other princely states, was on
three matters: defence, foreign affairs and communications. All the princely states were
invited to send representatives to India's Constituent Assembly, which was formulating a
constitution for the whole of India. They were also encouraged to set up constituent
assemblies for their own states. Most states were unable to set up assemblies in time, but a
few states did, in particular Saurashtra Union, Travancore-Cochin and Mysore. Even though
the States Department developed a model constitution for the states, in May 1949, the rulers
and chief ministers of all the states met and agreed that separate constitutions for the states
were not necessary. They accepted the Constitution of India as their own constitution. The
states that did elect constituent assemblies suggested a few amendments which were
accepted. The position of all the states (or unions of states) thus became equivalent to that of
regular Indian provinces. In particular, this meant that the subjects available for legislation by
the central and state governments was uniform across India.

In the case of Jammu and Kashmir, the representatives to the Constituent Assembly requested
that only those provisions of the Indian Constitution that corresponded to the original
Instrument of Accession should be applied to the State. Accordingly, the Article 370 was
incorporated into the Indian Constitution, which stipulated that the other articles of the
Constitution that gave powers to the Central Government would be applied to Jammu and
Kashmir only with the concurrence of the State's constituent assembly. This was a
"temporary provision" in that its applicability was intended to last till the formulation and
adoption of the State's constitution.[6] However, the State's constituent assembly dissolved
itself on 25 January 1957 without recommending either abrogation or amendment of the
Article 370. Thus the Article has become a permanent feature of the Indian constitution, as
confirmed by various rulings of the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Jammu
and Kashmir, the latest of which was in April 2018.
 ARMED FORCES SPECIAL POWERS ACT

What does the AFSPA mean?

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1958 (AFSPA) is one of the more draconian
legislations that the Indian Parliament has passed. It is a law with just six sections granting
special powers to the armed forces in what the act terms as "disturbed areas”. Even a non-
commissioned officer is granted the right to shoot to kill based on mere suspicion that it is
necessary to do so in order to "maintain the public order". The AFSPA gives the armed forces
wide powers to shoot, arrest and search, all in the name of "aiding civil power." It was first
applied to the North Eastern states of Assam and Manipur and was amended in 1972 to
extend to all the seven states in the north- eastern region of India. They are Assam, Manipur,
Tripura, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland, also known as the "seven
sisters". The enforcement of the AFSPA has resulted in innumerable incidents of arbitrary
detention, torture, rape, and looting by security personnel. Its continued application has led to
numerous protests, notably the longstanding hunger strike by Ms. Irom Chanu Sharmila in
Manipur. This legislation is sought to be justified by the Government of India, on the plea
that it is required to stop the North East states from seceding from the Union of India.

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) a law operative in “disturbed areas”,
including large parts of the Northeast region of India and Jammu Kashmir, has facilitated
grave human rights abuses, including extrajudicial execution, “disappearance”, rape and
torture by bestowing sweeping powers on the armed forces in these areas. The Act violates
non-derogable provisions of international human rights law, including the right to life, the
right to remedy and the rights to be free from arbitrary deprivation of liberty and from torture
and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (ill-treatment) as enshrined in the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which India is a state party
since 1979, and other treaties and standards. The AFSPA empowers security forces to arrest
and enter property without warrant and gives the security forces power to shoot to kill in
circumstances where members of the security forces are not at imminent risk. It facilitates
impunity because no person can start legal action against any members of the armed forces
for anything done under the Act, or purported to be done under the Act, without permission
of the Central Government.
In its concluding observations on India in 1997, the Human Rights Committee (HRC)
recognized that “terrorist activities in the border states that have caused the death and injury
of thousands of innocent people, force the State Party to take measures to protect its
population” yet emphasised that “[a]ll measures adopted must be in conformity with the State
Party’s obligations under the Covenant”.

The international community is concerned at the high incidence of custodial deaths, torture,
rape, extrajudicial killings and “disappearances” in the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir in
general and those among them which are facilitated by the AFSPA in particular. While some
action has been taken in recent years to bring perpetrators of human rights violations in these
areas to justice, the organization remains concerned that the AFSPA has enabled many
perpetrators to escape punishment. The international community appreciates the efforts of the
Supreme Court of India to limit the excessive powers granted to the military by the AFSPA,
in particular by ruling that a declaration under Section 3 of the AFSPA is to be reviewed
every six months, strengthening the safeguards for the rights of arrested persons and
determining that a list of pre-existing “do’s and don’ts” are legally binding. However, even
with these improvements, the AFSPA falls far short of international standards, including
provisions of treaties to which India is a state party. The United Progressive Alliance which
came to power in May 2004 repealed POTA after recognizing “concerns with the manner in
which POTA ha[d] been grossly misused”. Similar concerns exist with regard to the AFSPA.

In simple terms, AFSPA gives armed forces the power to maintain public order in “disturbed
areas”. They have the authority to prohibit a gathering of five or more persons in an area, can
use force or even open fire after giving due warning if they feel a person is in contravention
of the law. If reasonable suspicion exists, the army can also arrest a person without a warrant;
enter or search a premises without a warrant; and ban the possession of firearms.

Any person arrested or taken into custody may be handed over to the officer in charge of the
nearest police station along with a report detailing the circumstances that led to the arrest.
Suggested links:-

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_(Special_Powers)_Act
 https://wap.business-standard.com/article-amp/pti-stories/article-370-basis-of-our-
relationship-with-india-mehbooba-on-pm-s-remarks-119042700587_1.html
 https://frontline.thehindu.com/static/html/fl1719/17190890.html
 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/entire-nagaland-declared-
disturbed-for-six-more-months-under-afspa/articleshow/67321574.cms
 https://www.bharatniti.in/article/article-370-and-afspa-need-for-a-national-debate/18