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That said, there are some issues with the way in which Article 370 is being nullified and the state bifurcated. Even according to the constitutional provision to abate Article 370, consultation with the J&K state assembly is deemed necessary before a constitutional order to this effect is passed. The government, however, has chosen to use the fact that there is no J&K government at the moment and substituted the latter with the J&K governor. While this approach may or may not be legally valid, it certainly bypasses wider discussion on the matter that would have been democratically sound.
Second, the logic behind converting the state into two Union territories is also not plain. True, there has been a demand for Union territory status in Ladakh for some time. But with the cessation of Article 370, the special powers accruing to the J&K assembly in Srinagar would also extinguish. Thus, it is debatable if bifurcation of the state and creation of the Union territory of Ladakh was necessary after that.
In fact, this would be the first time in the history of India that a state was being converted into Union territories the trend has been the other way around. Hence, given the magnitude of the decision, more all-round discussion would have been prudent. But perhaps government's decision to push ahead with its Article 370 move was linked to external factors. With the US looking to wind down its military engagement in Afghanistan and turning to Pakistan to facilitate a peace deal with Afghan Taliban, Islamabad has been upping the ante on Kashmir.
New Delhi perhaps felt that Islamabad was gaining too much leverage in the emerging regional scenario and had to do something to counter this. Whatever the compulsions, even if Article 370 is abrogated New Delhi will have to sooner rather than later grant full statehood rights to Jammu & Kashmir and perhaps Ladakh too, for the sake of democratic governance as well as the federal principles in which India is grounded.