Five petitioners write Open Letter to CJI Gavai, urge early deadline for restoration of J&K's statehood
New Delhi: Five petitioners in the Article 370 case have shot off an open letter to Chief Justice of India B R Gavai urging him to constitute a bench to hear petitions on the unconstitutionality on the removal of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, an early deadline for its restoration and ensuring that no government in future abrogate statehoods. They said they are 'concerned' that the government might cite the Pahalgam attack to again delay the restoration of statehood, which has been promised repeatedly by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament. They wanted the Chief Justice to take suo-motu cognizance of the Open Letter and constitute a bench to decide on the issue.The petitioners - former Group of Interlocutors for Jammu and Kashmir Radhakumar, former Home Secretary G K Pillai, Major General Ashok K Mehtra (retired), Air Vice-Marshal Kapil Kak (retired) and former Secretary Inter-State Council of India Amitabha Pande - will also be urging MPs across to take up the issue in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament.'Not only is that argument (Pahalgam) not tenable, it can be argued that this is exactly the time to do so. The high turnout in the October 2024 elections with no violence, and the absolute majority the electors gave the National Conference…indicated the people had voted for an elected administration with the strength to govern according to public aspirations,' they said.Appreciating the way Kashmiris responded to the Pahalgam attack, they said in the Open Letter that the NIA investigations have now found out that the earlier police version that Kashmiris were involved in the terror attack is "unfounded". In an apparent reference to actions like demolishing houses of families of terrorists, they said LG Manoj Sinha administration's 'haste in unjustified punitive action' has caused a great deal of anger on the ground and this has been exacerbated by the sidelining of the elected administration and assembly from security consultations and initiatives for redress. .'The post-Pahalgam environment, which was widely conducive to the re-establishment of peace, is already being vitiated. The most effective bulwark against such vitiation is restoration of civil and political rights, including oversight institutions, that will come with statehood,' they said.The Assembly passed a resolution and eight months have passed since Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha forwarded it to the President, they said adding, no action has been taken, despite repeated requests by the Chief Minister.They said the government's repeated assurances on restoring statehood suggest a tacit recognition that the removal of statehood is unconstitutional. They also objected to the Solicitor-General's contention in December 2023 that statehood would only be restored in stages. 'This is a policy that nullifies the constitutional issue that no state can be demoted to a Union Territory in its entirety. If that demotion was unconstitutional, then it follows that statehood must be restored in toto," they said while warning that all states will be at risk of similar actions being taken against them following the Solicitor General's laid out plan.The letter said it was the first time in independent India that an existing state had been demoted to Union Territory. They had argued in the court that this contravened the Constitution and the basic structure doctrine that India is a federal democracy in which states' rights must be respected.The petitioners recalled that the Supreme Court had not ruled on the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of the Union government move because the Solicitor-General had assured it that statehood would be restored at an appropriate time. Then Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud urged the government to restore statehood at the earliest while Justice Sanjay Khanna separately had held it unconstitutional.
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The spy was Baron Wilhelm Sylvester von der Ropp, or Bill de Ropp, code number 12821, a Baltic-German from Lithuania, who 'lived in the heart of Berlin under the noses of the three main German security services – the Gestapo, the Abwehr and the SD'. Yet, as Jeffery said, at least 70% of the political intelligence on Hitler's Germany was provided by him. Ropp studied in Birmingham University, became a British citizen in 1914. He joined the British army's Air Intelligence team (propaganda & interrogations) under press baron Lord Northcliffe due to his linguistic flair. Ropp came in touch with MI6 as part of his work with Northcliffe and moved to 'Occupied Germany' in 1919, where he worked in the weekly reporting section. After that job ended, MI-6 employed him for covering the Baltic States under cover as a Daily Mail journalist, courtesy Lord Northcliffe. Meanwhile, he got married to Marie Winifred Woodman, known as Jimmy, who helped him in his 'real' work. MI-6 reappointed him to Berlin where he started writing for Outlook magazine edited by John Balderston, an American. At the end of November 1926, Ropp published an article on 'Airships' in Outlook. 'Little did he realise that he would be discussing these very issues with Adolf Hitler himself only four years later." Very soon, he became their Berlin correspondent. The author said that his first piece on 'Germany inside the League' following Berlin's entry to the League of Nations in Geneva demonstrated his ability as a 'political analyst as well as his excellent written English.' In 1926, Ropp became a representative in Germany for the Bristol Aeroplane Company, which was used by MI-6's 'Air Section' led by F.W. Winterbotham, the 'Ultra' intelligence specialist. 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For this he adopted, as the author described in Chapter 11, a 'crab-like' approach to Hitler in five stages: First, he tapped Baron Walter von Medem, whom he had met in 1919 while recapturing Riga from the Bolshevik forces. Medem was a member of the Right Wing Stahlhelm (The Steel Helmet) of German war veterans. Medem introduced him to Major Hans Berthold, also of Stahlhelm, who in turn introduced him to Arno Schickedanz, a fellow Balt from Riga, who was the Berlin correspondent of the Nazis' influential newspaper Völkischer Beobachter (VB). Schickedanz suggested that Ropp should meet his boss, Alfred Rosenberg, who was the editor of VB. They got along well: 'In Bill de Ropp he found someone who was prepared to listen. He may never have realised that Bill only took an interest because he was being paid by MI6 to obtain intelligence'. Also, for long, Rosenberg had believed that Great Britain was a natural ally of Nazi Germany. Bill de Ropp allowed him to believe in that and 'kept it alive in Rosenberg's consciousness for many years to come'. The author describes how Ropp met Hitler in VB's office at Schellingstrasse, Munich in 1931: 'He [Hitler] was dressed in an old trench-coat and an ill-fitting 'reach me down suit'. Hitler did not waste time with any formalities but plunged into his first question: 'What do the English think about my movement?'' Ropp worked on that to continue conversations with Hitler and Rosenberg. Hitler told him in his second meeting: 'If you could keep me informed of what, in your opinion, the English really think, you will not only render me a service, but it would be to the advantage of your country.' Both Hitler and Rosenberg thought that Ropp was spying on England for them. Ropp felt that Hitler was not very insightful. 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