News18 Wrap: Govt Revokes Article 370, J&K's Bifurcation & Other Updates

News18 Wrap brings you some of the biggest stories on News18.com today to help you stay updated at all times.

370 Revoked: Home Minister Amit Shah today announced the government’s decision to repeal Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The state is proposed to be bifurcated into two Union Territories, Ladakh with no legislation and Kashmir with legislation. The move comes in the backdrop of three of Jammu and Kashmir's most prominent politicians — Mehbooba Mufti, Omar Abdullah and Sajad Lone — being put under house arrest late Sunday night amid internet services and mobile services being suspended in several places, and imposition of Section 144 in Srinagar. ‘Darkest Day in Indian Democracy', said Mehbooba Mufti on the decision to repeal articles 370, 35A. Read in details the Jammu and Kashmir updates. Nations React: Pakistan has said it will “employ all available options” against India’s move to repeal Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and the decision to bifurcate the state into two Union Territories.The United States Embassy in India issued a security alert for the US citizens in Jammu and Kashmir. Meanwhile, UN Security Council's five permanent members (the p5); namely China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States have been briefed by the Indian government on Jammu and Kashmir. Read more.AAP's Support: The decision of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal — who has time and again clashed with the Centre over the issue of statehood for the Capital — to support the government's move to repeal articles 370 and 35A and bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir didn't surprise many within the Aam Aadmi Party. This ideological disagreement, the source added, was also a factor that eventually led to one of the first splits in the party when advocate Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav left the AAP. Read more to know AAP's further opinions.Promise Fulfilled: BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav on Monday tweeted an old photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hail the government’s decision to scrap Article 370 in the Parliament. Shortly after Home Minister Amit Shah announced the decision, Madhav sent out a tweet which said "Promise fulfilled", showing Modi in what appears to be a stage with a background banner that reads, "Remove Article 370, eliminate terrorism, save the country". Follow more to view the picture.Article Drafting: The legend goes, when “the father of India’s Constitution”, Dr BR Ambedkar, refused to draft Article 370, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru got a member of his cabinet, N Gopalaswami Ayyangar, to do the job. Though the version of Ambedkar’s refusal has been rejected and contested by some historians and experts, there are others who stand by it. Read to know more about Gopalaswami Ayyangar and the drafting of Article 370. #RedForKashmir: In response to the scrapping of Article 370, social media have been sharing the hashtag #RedForKAshmir in dissent against the government's move to "integrate" the state with the rest of India. #RedForKashmir is a movement that grew on social media, despite the near-total media and telecommunication black-out in Kashmir that was implemented over the weekend. Instagram, Twitter and Facebook have been filled with images of a red background that people put up as their display picture. Also, see artworks shared in support of the hashtag.

One would have expected that, in this day and age, something as barbaric and medieval as lynching would elicit unanimous outrage and condemnation. But in the wonder that is India there are no longer any settled issues; so, while some are aghast that such incidents keep happening, others are infuriated at “selective outrage.” A group of 49 film personalities and academics, including Adoor Gopalkrishnan, Mani Ratnam, Ramchandra Guha, Ashis Nandy, Anurag Kashyap, Aparna Sen, and Konkona Sen Sharma, recently wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regretting that ‘Jai Shree Ram’ has become a war cry: “Ram is sacred for the majority community, stop defiling the name of Ram.” Read the piece by Ravi Shanker Kapoor to know how public discourse turned sullied amid claims of ‘selective outrage.’