Seven years ago, a single constitutional move rewrote the map of Indian governance — and Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel marked the anniversary of Article 370's abrogation on 5 August with a pointed tribute to the leaders who drove it and the vision it was meant to fulfil.

Writing in Gujarati, CM Patel called the date 'yugapravartak adhyay' — 'an epoch-making chapter' — in India's history. He credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for their 'firm resolve and strong leadership' in ending the special status that had kept Jammu and Kashmir constitutionally apart from the rest of India for seven decades.

From Mukherjee's dream to Modi's majority

Patel's post invoked Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and one of the earliest voices demanding full constitutional integration of Jammu and Kashmir. Mukherjee famously opposed the special status arrangement and died in detention in Kashmir in 1953 while campaigning against it. For the BJP, the 2019 abrogation was the fulfilment of that decades-old ideological commitment — one the party had placed explicitly in its 2014 and 2019 election manifestos.

On 5 August 2019, the government moved swiftly: Article 370 was revoked through a presidential order, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act bifurcated the former state into two union territories — Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The Supreme Court upheld the move in December 2023, closing the principal legal challenge to the decision.

Kashmir in the 'Ek Bharat' framework

Patel framed the abrogation not as a legal correction alone but as the starting point for 'a new sunrise of peace, good governance, and all-round progress' in the region. He concluded with the government's integrationist slogan — 'Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat' ('One India, Best India') — casting Kashmir as an equal partner in the nation's development agenda.

The Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat framework, launched under the Modi government, promotes cultural and administrative linkages between states and union territories. Jammu and Kashmir's inclusion in central development schemes following the reorganisation has been a consistent talking point for BJP leaders on each anniversary of the abrogation.

As the union territory awaits the full restoration of statehood — a question that remains politically live — anniversary posts like Patel's signal that the BJP intends to keep 5 August firmly on the national calendar as a landmark of its governance record.