'Not democracy but authoritarianism': Historian Ramachandra Guha on Article 370

Delhi: Historian Ramachandra Guha claimed on Monday the notification by President Ram Nath Kovind on revoking Article 370 is similar to the one issued by the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed on imposition of Emergency in 1975.

"President Kovind does a Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed," he said.

"This is not democracy, this is authoritarianism, the handiwork of paranoid, insecure rulers who daren't even have a proper debate inside or outside Parliament," Guha added.

"A straight question: what do you think of shutting down an entire state and detaining former Chief Ministers before taking a fateful decision that affects that state and its peoples? What if it was our Karnataka next and not their Kashmir now?" he said in a series of tweets.

The Central government revoked Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and proposed that the state be bifurcated into two Union territories.

Meeting a long-held promise of the BJP, Union Home Minister Amit Shah moved a resolution in the Rajya Sabha that Article 370, which allowed Jammu and Kashmir to have its own constitution, will no longer be applicable.

Shah also moved a bill proposing bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories -- Jammu and Kashmir division and Ladakh.