Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 12: Voicing strong dissent over the observance of July 13, as the Martyrs Day, the former Union Minister and MLA, Prof. Chaman Lal Gupta asserted that this cannot be a National Day as it was linked with the communal frenzy of 1931, which was engineered by the agents of British imperialists who wanted to teach a lesson to Maharaja Hari Singh for supporting the cause of Indian independence at the Round Table Conference of Princes and Nawabs held at London in 1930. The Maharaja had said in that conference that there was majority of Muslims in his State but the people of all the faiths live together like brothers and there was no problem as such.
Prof. Gupta recalled that in July 1931, one Abdul Qadeer, a resident of Peshwar, now a Headquarter of Frontier Province of Pakistan , had come to Srinagar as a cook (Khansama ) with an officer of the Britishers and started highly inflammatory speeches against the regime of Maharaja Hari Singh. Qadeer had come to be a focal person of inciting communal sentiments of Kashmiri Muslims. The administration of the Maharaja had registered a case against this foreigner on charges of inciting communal trouble and sedition. When the hearing of this case was in progress, a mob had tried to get forcible release of the accused person. This had resulted in police firing in which certain persons were killed on this day of July 13, 1931.
This incident had led to wide spread communal violence and many of the people belonging to minority communities became the target of this mob violence and frenzy.
Prof. Gupta questioned the sincerity of the ruling leaders and asked them how July 13, could be a National Day.
He further said that if it was really a National Day that how the Government of Pakistan held areas as also the organizations of Jehadis observe July 13, as Martyrs Day.
More so, why this Day is observed in the Valley of Kashmir alone by the NC/Congress leaders and why they do not observe it at the national level.
Prof. Gupta said that observance of July 13, or other such like controversial happenings lead to encouraging of the fundamentalism and communal tensions which have already gave birth to militancy and violence resulting in mass migration of the minorities from the vale of Kashmir which was the abode of saints and sufies where people of various faiths used to live like brothers for centuries.
The observance of the memories of such sad happenings encourage only secessionism and avoidable tensions, he maintained and stressed the need to avoid creating such tensions.
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