Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary on Wednesday moved a resolution in the Assembly calling the Centre to initiate a dialogue with the elected representatives of the Union Territory to restore special status and constitutional guarantees.

Interestingly, the one-page resolution does not mention the very provision — Article 370 – which gave special status to the erstwhile state. The Deputy CM claimed that the provision “safeguarded the identity, culture and rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir”.

In the run-up to the Assembly polls and even after his party’s victory, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had maintained that Article 370 is a part of the ideology of the National Conference (NC) but had repeatedly reiterated that the things of the past cannot be changed. “We have always said that it’s not a battle that’s going to end tomorrow and is a fight that is going to extend to a change of government at the Centre. I’ve been very careful to tell people time and again that you can’t expect to get back what was taken, from the people who took it from us. So nobody, I don’t think anybody here is under this illusion. That we’re going to somehow be able to convince Modi sahab to return what was taken,” he had said in an interview with The Indian Express last month while promising to keep the issue alive as he was “duty-bound” to do so.

On the other hand, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha in an August interview with The Indian Express said the matter was decided by the country’s top court and there was no scope of reopening the issue.

“Now, there is no scope for legal scrutiny. I feel those who take oath in the name of the Constitution, they must remember that going against the law of the land, or going against the decision of the Supreme Court, is not under their purview. What is the legal sanctity of doing something which is not under your authority?” he had said when asked for his views on a situation of the elected Assembly passing a resolution on the issue.