Six years ago today, a constitutional provision that had defined India's relationship with Jammu and Kashmir for seven decades was struck from the books in a single parliamentary session. On 5 August 2019, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi moved to abrogate Article 370 and Article 35A — and on the anniversary of that moment, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini marked the occasion with a pointed tribute to what he called a golden and transformative chapter in the nation's history.

The slogan that waited seven decades

Saini's post invoked the name of Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, the politician who built his career around the demand for full constitutional integration of Jammu and Kashmir. Mookerjee's rallying cry — 'Ek Vidhan, Ek Nishan, Ek Pradhan' ('One Constitution, One Flag, One Prime Minister') — became the ideological cornerstone of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the party he founded in 1951, and later of its successor, the BJP. For more than six decades, that demand sat in manifestos and speeches. The 2019 abrogation, Saini argued, finally gave it constitutional form.

What the 2019 move actually changed

The abrogation was not simply a symbolic gesture. Parliament passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, dissolving the state and creating two centrally administered union territories: Jammu and Kashmir (with a legislature) and Ladakh (without one). Article 370 had since 1949 granted the region its own constitution, a separate flag, and restrictions on property ownership by non-residents — provisions that critics argued kept the region outside the uniform application of Indian law. Article 35A, inserted by a presidential order in 1954, had defined who qualified as a 'permanent resident' with special rights. Both provisions were ended in a single day.

The BJP had made abrogation an explicit manifesto commitment in both 2014 and 2019. When it was finally executed, the move drew immediate international attention and sharp domestic debate — but it also represented the fulfilment of a promise the party had carried for the better part of its existence.

Saini's framing: mainstream, not margin

The Haryana Chief Minister's post framed the anniversary not as a political victory lap but as a statement about belonging. 'Today our Kashmir is moving forward rapidly, shoulder to shoulder with the country's progress and development in the mainstream,' he wrote, closing with 'Jai Hind!' and the hashtag #Article370. The language of 'Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat' ('One India, Excellent India') — a Modi-era integration programme — ran through the message, tying the constitutional change to a broader national-unity narrative the BJP has consistently promoted since 2014.

The anniversary will be watched as much for what comes next as for what has passed: assembly elections, the pace of central scheme implementation, and the long-term administrative shape of both union territories remain live questions in Jammu, Srinagar, and Leh.

Seven decades of a constitutional exception, ended in a day — and six years on, the debate over what that day truly delivered is still very much open.