Yet the process of dilution of the autonomous character of Jammu and Kashmir started way back in the 1950s. Even after acceding to India in 1947, the state had its own separate Constitution, its own national flag, its own prime minister and president. It was the only state that could choose not to implement federal legislations by not passing them in its state legislature.

The residents of the state were not citizens of India till 1954, and Indian nationals required a travel permit to visit Jammu and Kashmir until 1959. With every passing decade, constitutional guarantees were either withdrawn or diluted to curtail the original autonomous position of the state, but never before had the structure been changed.

The amendments made by the B.J.P. government have taken the glaring liberty of changing key phrases in Article 367 of the Indian Constitution, replacing the “Constituent Assembly” of Jammu and Kashmir, which drafted the state constitution and approved the relationship with India, with “Legislative Assembly.” The former exercises constituent power — an expression of sovereign authority — whereas the latter embodies representative power.

This change of phrases enables the Indian government to abrogate Article 370 — which embodied the autonomous status of the state — with the concurrence of the Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir. While the efficacy of Article 370 has been destroyed, it is still on the books as a Proustian vestige of the past. Now, the process for its abrogation has started.

The Supreme Court of India has the power to review and strike down any constitutional amendments enacted by the Parliament if it alters the basic structure of the constitution as this amendment does, but in the refashioned India there is little hope of justice and fair play.

For more than a year, Jammu and Kashmir has been without an elected government and has been ruled by the president of India through a governor appointed by Mr. Modi’s government. On Monday, the president of India equated the federally appointed governor with the elected representatives of Jammu and Kashmir and vested all their legislative and constitutional powers in him. This is a constitutional burial of the democratic rights of the people of the state.

The changes brought about by Mr. Modi’s government have reduced the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir to being an appendage of the federal government, to be effectively administered by New Delhi.