K B Jandial
PM Modi’s politically ‘incorrect’ decision to rollback three Farm Laws has fuelled a similar demand for Article 370. It has galvanized the dormant Kashmir based mainstream parties. They are reaching out to the people including Jammu region to garner public support to their belated campaign to pressurize Modi for similar roll back on Articles 370 &35A. Well, in a democratic country, it is a political right to campaign for anything within the constitutional limits and thus campaigning for restoration of J&K special status cannot be objected to, much less calling it anti-national. But it, however, doesn’t give any leader or the party right to instigate violence or unrest.
Straight Talk
On the flip side, it is equally important to sensitize the people about the real implications of these scrapped provisions and consequences of 5th August, 2019 parliamentary move. Mirror has to be shown to these seasonal anti-Delhi leaders and counter their emotional exploitation and lies but with reasoning and logic. Conflicting viewpoints of different senior Kashmiri leaders on its “abrogation” and restoration indicate lack of unanimity on this critical issue.
Dr. Farooq Abdullah, a charismatic leader who mesmerize people with his profuse passionate and emotive oratory, has given a call for “sacrifice” on the line of the farmers (about 700 died at dharna site) to get back Article 370 . It is quite dangerous to seek deaths to pressurize the Central Govt to undo what the Parliament did almost unanimously on August 5, 2019. But it is not unusual for Farooq Abdullah to speak out his heart without caring for its dangerous portents. He did it in the initial phase of Kashmir terrorism while talking BBC when he had reportedly asked his party men to go across the border, get training in arms handling and return. Whether the youth went across the border on his call or otherwise the fact remained that about 50, 000 lives including about 1600 J&K Police personnel have so far been lost in the unachievable dream of seceding Kashmir from India. If “sacrifice” of 50,000 persons could not bring Kashmir closer to this “dream” how could “sacrifice” of 700 help to restore Article 370?
Another political stalwart known for his down -to-earth style, Ghulam Nabi Azad held a contrarian view on agitating for restoration of Article 370. He felt that “there is no point in raising Article 370 issue” at this stage and instead, fight for restoration of Statehood and elections to get back a democratic Govt. Taking a pot shot on Abdullahs, Azad said, “Some people have the habit of building castles in the sky”. He feels that in near future, Article 370 cannot be restored as the Congress is unlikely to get 300 plus seats in Lok Sabha in the 2024 election that is necessary to amend the Constitution.
Kashmir’s fire-brand leader, Mehbooba Mufti in usual virulent language sought restoration of these provisions and held out a ‘threat ‘that if Modi Govt “wants to keep Kashmir” in India, he must restore Article 370 and resolve the Kashmir issue. Nothing new, in pre- Article 370 abrogation days, she had dared Modi to touch this provision and there would be no one in Kashmir to give “kandda” to the Tricolour. Instead, now the iconic Lal Chowk tower and other landmarks are permanently lit up in Tricolour. Either she overestimated the reaction on abrogation or underestimated Modi. Not even a drop of blood was shed in the aftermath of 5th August, 2019, curtailment of civil liberties of the pleaders notwithstanding.
Mehbooba’s rhetoric continued, “We decided our fate with Mahatma Gandhi’s India which gave us Article 370, our own Constitution and flag. If they take everything from us, we will also take back our decision” and cannot live in “Godse’s India”. Well, neither the people of Kashmir nor Sheikh Abdullah acceded J&K to India in 1947. Maharaja Hari Singh, who alone was constitutionally empowered to take this decision, did it. Taking Sheikh Abdullah in the administration with PM Mehr Chand Mahajan( who was gradually eased out to make the Sheikh PM) was one of three conditions Pt Nehru imposed for accepting the Instrument of Accession & rushing military help to J&K. The Maharaja agreed these and he too was sent on forced exile and Sher-i-Kashmir became the uncrowned Maharaja. Be that so, it is an unacceptable insult to the secular Indian nation which continues to be of Mahatma Gandhi. Why didn’t she or late Mufti Saheb realise it when they stitched North-South Alliance for power?
Mehbooba sought to equate US-Afghanistan relationship with J&K-India saying, “You cannot keep Kashmir by holding a stick or a gun… the super power America failed to rule Afghanistan on the strength of its power and had to leave the country.” Both the situations are incomparable, being poles apart. US troops were sent to Afghanistan to destroy Al-Qaeda and capture or kill Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Mehbooba is no novice to be educated that Afghanistan was never part of America while J&K is an integral part of India and the army stationed there is no alien troops but part of the nation which is fighting Pakistan’s proxy war in J&K. Is there a paradigm shift in her approach from soft separatism to separatism by obliquely calling the Indian army an “occupational” force?
Omar Abdullah is sore over Azad’s views on restoration of Article 370. He has linked the scrapped J&K’s special status with “existence” of the people of J&K, calling it as “heritage” and “honour and dignity”. How Article 370 became people’s existence, heritage and identity? Can they tell how the special status helped the people, much less becoming the heritage, honour and dignity? It appears that Iconic Sher-i-Kashmir got special constitutional provisions as “muaawza”( compensation) for the Muslim majority State acceding to India. How can this ‘muaawza’ be the people’s identity, heritage or dignity? It only empowered Kashmir’s ruling class to have “protected” loot. Disgraceful! Kashmiriyat was Kashmir’s identity but what the people did to it in the nineties is well known.
Another Kashmiri leader and former Gupkar Alliance partner, Sajjad Lone doesn’t approve of comparing Kashmiri Muslims with the farmers for restoration of Article 370 and asked Abdullahs to wake from the delusions. He called it “the new drama” while claiming that the demand for the restoration of Article 370 would never fade in Kashmir.
Home Minister Amit Shah, in the subtle but forcefully, has clarified some of these charges. Speaking at HT Leadership Summit Shah has questioned those who are trying to tell people that peace has not been established after 5th August 2019 and asked why peace was not prevailing in Kashmir before 5th August, 2019 when the J&K had special status.
The truth is that the militancy came to Kashmir when J&K had Articles 370 & 35A. There is no linkage between the peace and the special status as Kashmir had been on the boil all through on one pretext or the other, even though many commentators attribute Kashmir turbulence to the arrest of Sheikh Abdullah in 1953. This theory was negated after the Sheikh returned to power in 1975 and that too on the crutches of the Congress which again toppled him two years later that made him much stronger. Sher-i-Kashmir preferred to die as a true Indian burying all theories of his bitterness with Indian leadership. Some political leaders also attribute it to the “discrimination” and “trust deficit” with the Centre. But this too doesn’t meet the scrutiny of largesse showered on J&K.
Mehbooba’s anger over the betrayal of Modi in the fall of her alliance Govt in 2018 and long detention in the wake abrogation of Article 370 is understandable but nothing justifies her despicable comment on Indian nation and veiled threat of secession. But it was not always so. In May 2016, while addressing a public function Anantnag Railway Station she as CM had hailed accession with India saying that it was the greatest thing that happened to Kashmiri Muslims after seeing what had been happening in Pakistan and other Muslim countries. “Look at Pakistan…terrorism has taken such menacing proportions that they have to resort to aerial bombardment. Every day, 20 to 30 people are killed and many others hanged. We now realize how correct the decision to accede to India was.” Not only that, she had said that Kashmiri doctors working in US & London who when disclosed their identity as Indians were not looked upon with suspicion. How can people forget her abrasive counter question at the presser at Srinagar with Rajnath Singh “do the youth go to the security forces camps to get toffees” when asked to justify firing on the youth near security camps in the post Burhan Wani killing. This was Mehbooba when in power.
One is aghast to compare the “changed and provocative” statements of these leaders today and when in power. Farooq Abdullah had been talking about blasting terrorist camps across the border to rid Kashmir from daily bloodshed but now call for dialogue with Pakistan unmindful of continued terror strikes. Omar Abdullah as MoS for External Affairs, in an interview with Saudi Arabic Daily OKAZ in 2002, had rejected any “de-escalation of the crisis with Pakistan”. Published on Feb18, 2002, Omar had blamed Pervez Musharraf for failure of Indo-Pak dialogue and said “Musharraf rejected all issues of comprehensive dialogue, differences and concentrated only on Kashmir issue… Musharraf wants to concentrate on Kashmir and the current situation at first but he forgets the entirety of differences… Why should we get stuck to dialogue on Kashmir?” This exposes the genuineness of their utterances.
But today, they are not only seeking dialogue with Pakistan but also holding India responsible for every killing attributing these to absence of dialogue with no condemnation of Pakistan despite her hands soaked with Kashmiri blood. Pakistan is projected as if it is the victim of Indian action. What solution do these leaders have for Kashmir in the dialogue? Handing over Kashmir to them? Nothing short of it would satisfy Pakistan but India won’t give an inch of it.
Parties’ earlier bonhomie with BJP at different points of time could be taken as mere opportunism for which the Indian political system is quite well-known but in a sensitive J&K, such dangerous assertions promote people’s alienation and secessionism. Why Kashmiri leaders are whipping up passion and anti-India sentiments on restoration of Article 370 especially when it had since become “khokhla” as was designed by the architect of this special provision and repeatedly assured by Congress Govts in the Parliament.
Article 370’s advantage was for these leaders, their relations and henchmen in amassing wealth, grabbing land, property and even Govt positions by manipulating constitutional bodies. These provisions and anti-Delhi sentiments had come handy to Kashmir leadership as a smokescreen to their misdeeds and plunder. Besides, It helped them to sow a seed of separatism in the hearts of the Muslim population by preventing extension of the same progressive laws which J&K MPs voted in the Parliament. The perennial instability of a Muslim State is an advantage to the Kashmir’s ruling class.
When these leaders were in power and faced with the terrorism, these stringent measures came handy to them. In the tenure of both Omar Abdullah & Mehbooba Mufti rule in J&K, 232 youth were killed in 2010 & 2016 in Kashmir and now their party spokesmen in national TV debates talked about bloodshed in Kashmir during the present dispensation. Not many people know that draconian PSA is a gift of NC to the people of J&K.
What was special in the J&K Constitution that helped the people? How can the people forget that it was Sher-i-Kashmir who prevented extension of fundamental rights to people of J&K and these were extended only in 1954 only after his sacking? They resisted extension of jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and Election Commission of India for quite some time. Worst example of trampling the democracy was witnessed right in the very first election in J&K in 1952 under Sheikh Abdullah’s rule, 73 out of 75 members of the J&K Constituent Assembly were declared elected unopposed and the contest was allowed only on two seats and that too in Jammu. This was what the democracy, the Special Status gave to the people. How can they erase from the public memory the electoral fraud of 1987 Assembly election which is the major cause for Kashmir terrorism! Resistance to extension of 73rd & 74th Constitutional amendment is relatively recent one. These are some of the many “benefits” of Special Status that had held the people of J&K to ransom in all these years without the people realising it as they were emotionally attached to Article 370. (to be continued)
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