New Delhi: With the verdict on Article 370 petitions, the Supreme Court (SC) has drawn to a close a historical legal battle that has recast Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutional relationship with the Union of India.A Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud on Monday, December 11, upheld the legal validity of the Union government’s decision to strip J&K of its special status under Article 370 and its bifurcation into two union territories on August 5, 2019.On September 5, the CJI-led bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant heard the final arguments in the case involving more than a dozen petitions which had mounted a legal challenge to the reading down of Article 370.The petitions, filed by J&K-centric parties, groups and individuals who termed the Narendra Modi government’s “unilateral” decision as “a mosaic of illegalities”, had urged the apex court to restore Article 370.The SC had clubbed the petitions and a new bench comprising five senior-most judges of the apex court was formed on July 3 this year. It heard the matter over a period of 16 days in August and September, and reserved its verdict.Shah Faesal, the 2010-batch IAS officer from Kashmir, was the lead petitioner in the case. He resigned from the civil services in 2018 to protest the “unabated killings in Kashmir” and briefly toyed with politics. Faesal, however, pulled out of the petition after his reinstatement in 2022.The young IAS officer was among several dozens of political detainees, which included J&K’s three former chief ministers, former ministers, MLAs, MLCs, lawyers, activists and others who were taken into preventive custody on August 4, 2019, a day before Article 370 was read down.On August 5, 2019, Jammu and Kashmir woke up amid a communication blackhole and unprecedented security measures. A strict curfew was imposed overnight and shoot-at-sight orders were reportedly issued (though denied by the government) to prevent any street protests that defined Kashmiri rage in the years before 2019.Mobile phone and internet connectivity remained blocked for months, education and healthcare sectors suffered the brunt while hundreds of Kashmiri leaders and political activists were thrown into jails, some of whom continue to remain incarcerated.As the country’s newest union territory came out of crippling restrictions in 2020, the BJP-led Union government started tightening its grip by rolling out a series of new rules and laws which have altered J&K’s social, economic and political landscape.Even though the legality of the decision to read down Article 370 was yet to be decided, the Modi government pushed J&K on a new trajectory, without the consent of its people or the approval of courts, while eyeing a foothold in the country’s only Muslim-majority region.From new domicile and land laws that have trampled on the special rights enjoyed by J&K’s citizens to the redrawing of assembly and parliamentary constituencies through delimitation, the BJP-led Union government steamrolled a series of changes which have reset J&K relationship with the Union of India.For some, these drastic and dramatic changes have turned J&K into a ‘peaceful’ and ‘prosperous’ region but for many others, the move to read down Article 370 has alienated the people of Kashmir and widened the chasm between New Delhi and Srinagar.On the political front, J&K-centric parties such as the National Conference (NC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have reeled under a series of setbacks and defections over the last four years.Led by former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and former PDP leader Altaf Bukhari, two new parties have appeared on the political horizon which are getting filled with NC and PDP renegades, under what some believe is a ploy to fragment the vote of Kashmiri Muslims even further once the elections are held in J&K.With more than two dozen PDP leaders joining these new political formations, J&K’s former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has openly accused the Modi government of breaking her party using the threat of investigation agencies, a charge denied by the government.National Conference president and Lok Sabha MP Farooq Abdullah was also grilled in connection with a scam in J&K cricket, which has been termed as a “politically motivated” investigation by his party.It is not only the politics of J&K which has changed post August 5, 2019.The orbits of ‘security threat’ and ‘terror funding’ that covered Kashmiri militants and separatists in the years before Article 370 revocation is now being used against academics, government officials, teachers, journalists, bankers and even policemen.Many believe that it is this reign of a sweeping crackdown by investigation agencies post Article 370 that has pushed Kashmir into a meaningful silence.Against this backdrop, the verdict on Article 370 is expected to generate a lot of interest and debate, especially in Kashmir Valley, which has prompted the security agencies to firm up the preparedness to prevent any kind of protests or other ‘disturbances’.Former J&K chief minister and NC vice-president Omar Abdullah said on Friday that the local administration withdrew permission for a rally his party was planning to organise in north Kashmir on Monday.Omar hoped that the SC’s decision would “favour the people of J&K” while the PDP president, who has vociferously opposed the reading down of Article 370 over the last four years, said that the SC’s verdict “might not be in the interest of J&K and the country”.Following a high-level meeting with top officials of civil and police administration, which was chaired by Additional Director General of Police Vijay Kumar last week, forces’ deployment has been stepped up in parts of J&K while security agencies are also monitoring social media.While the undoing of Article 370, and especially the manner in which it was done, has come as a historic betrayal for most J&K-centric parties, the BJP will continue to cherish it as the delivery of its long-held promise of ‘One Nation, One Constitution, One Flag’.