Beginning next month, all eyes particularly in Jammu and Kashmir will be focussed on the Supreme Court, which after a long haul of four years will finally start daily hearing of petitions challenging the Centre’s decision to do away with the State’s special status and dividing it into two UTs on 5 August 2019.

Importantly, the SC is not going to rely upon North Block’s 20-page fresh affidavit of July 11 claiming J&K is “witnessing unprecedented era of peace, progress and prosperity”. The court said “it has no bearing on the constitutional challenge” to abrogation of Article 370.

Moreso, as petitions have challenged the Centre’s ‘unilateral’ move to impose curfew and undo the federal structure by dividing J&K‘without taking consent from ‘people’ and ‘overnight abrogating their democratic rights and freedoms guaranteed.’ The Centre has countered August 5 order has become ‘fait accompli’!

What is significant is the claims made in the Centre’s affidavit that: ‘life has returned to normalcy in the region after over three decades of turmoil’, the ‘street violence’ engineered by terrorists/secessionist networks having become a “thing of the past”, organised stone-pelting incidents, having come down, bandhs and hartals becoming a distant memory etc.

If that is the case, then why wait in holding elections? Note it has been five long years since J&K has been without people’s representatives, with Raj Bhavan yielding all the powers.

Now that the Centre has given itself a pat on the back for ‘restoring normalcy’ no further delay in holding the democratic exercise should be condoned.