Watch | 'Doing Away with Article 370 has Hurt India’s Secular Foundation': Salman Soz

Name: Watch | Doing Away with Article 370 has Hurt India’s Secular Foundation: Salman Soz - The Wire
Uploaded: 2026-08-14T13:48:37+05:30
Channel: The Wire
Description: In this episode of The Wire Talks, The Wire's founding editor Sidharth Bhatia and Congress spokesperson Salman Soz discuss the impact of reading down of Article 370, seven years on.

In this episode of The Wire Talks, The Wire's founding editor Sidharth Bhatia and Congress spokesperson Salman Soz discuss the impact of reading down of Article 370, seven years on.

Sidharth Bhatia

In this episode of The Wire Talks, The Wire's founding editor Sidharth Bhatia and Congress spokesperson Salman Soz discuss the impact of reading down of Article 370, seven years on.

Seven years ago, Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir was read down and done away with and the region was converted to two Union Territory-J & K and Ladakh. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had then said that this would fully integrate the state into the country and that it would bring peace.

“Article 370 was there from the 1950s. And there was no terrorism in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, until things changed and Pakistan got an opportunity. So, to say that Article 370 has anything to do with the terrorism and separatism, I don't think the fact support that,” said Salman Soz, economist and national spokesperson of the Congress.

In the latest episode of The Wire Talks, The Wire's podcast with founding editor Sidharth Bhatia, Soz said Article 370 was “in the vanguard” of the Constitutional spirit of decentralisation, of reflecting the local sensibilities of the people.

“This was the only Muslim-majority state in the country in a Hindu-majority country and that was a wonderful thing. That was Sheikh Abdullah’s vision. Instead of celebrating it, there was a concerted effort to tear it down,” he said.

The Congress leader added that Article 370 could have been “a kind of a prototype for how Indian federalism would evolve. But unfortunately, the BJP and others did not see it that way. I think there will be a cost to that.”

Watch the full discussion:

This article went live on August fourteenth, two thousand twenty six, at forty-eight minutes past one in the afternoon.

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