Ranbir Singh Pathania
Crescendo for declaring a holiday on birthday of Maharaja Hari Singh has ultimately found its climax. Government seems to have agreed declaring a gazetted holiday on the day.
Amongst concerns expressed about stonewashing of history, he was labeled as a ‘despot’ and ‘tyrant’. He was exiled from the State, which was built by his ancestors and his people extending upto northern areas of Gilgit-Baltistan, Ladakh, Trans-Karakoram Tract and Aksai Chin.
It was April 26, 1961 that news of Maharaja’s passing away was broken by the All India Radio, plunging J & K into a state of shock. Radio station played songs and the state flag continued to flutter. Fretted and fumed, a band of local youth marched to the civil secretariat and attempted to bring down the flag to half-mast, but Police fired at them.
Nonetheless, this is something more than a holiday on birthday of ruler of a State. Somewhat less than vindication of Maharaja’s standpoint on the ‘way forward in Jammu and Kashmir.
A rainbow of thoughts and theories are there as to how Jammu Kashmir was pushed forward, particularly post 15th of August 1947. Nehruvian approach. Patel’s pragmatism. History bears testimony that Nehru was more swayed by Sheikh Abdullah and Maharaja’s banished Prime Minister, Gopalaswami Ayyanger. Whereas Patel had his ears closer to the ground in Jammu and Kashmir. It was Patel who had sent RSS patriarch, Guru Ji Gowalkar as emissary to convince Maharaja to sign Instrument of Accession with India.
Maharaja went hammer and tongs against Indian government’s decision to hold unilateral ceasefire while allowing the illegal occupation of part territory of Jammu and Kashmir which stood lawfully ceded to Union of India by Maharaja himself. Nehru went to United Nations and came back high and dry.
A part of letter Dt. 31 January 1948 written by Maharaja to Sardar Patel reads, “The Union only provisionally accepted the accession and if the Union cannot recover back our territory and is going eventually to agree to the decision of the Security Council which may result in handing us over to Pakistan then there is no point in sticking to the accession of the State to the Indian Union”.
Maharaja ceded an area of 86,000 square kilometers. And across the ceasefire line, 45,000 square kilometers is in illegal control and occupation of China and Pakistan. Reclaiming this area and re-uniting the separated families is now the unfinished agenda post 5th August, 2019.
And China Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC), sporadic skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops are also legacy of the said blunder.
Despite strictest reservations expressed by Maharaja, Patel and even Baba Saheb, J & K was allowed to have its own Constituent Assembly, Flag, Constitution, Prime Minister and Rajpramukh/Sadar-e-Riyasat. And except the notified subjects, no central law could be ipso facto made applicable to J & K unless it was ratified by the Legislative Assembly of J & K.
It simply amounted to validating the idea of ‘a state within a state’.
Anyhow Jan Sangh founder Mr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee saw writing on the wall and stood in support of Maharaja. He even sacrificed his life for violating the ‘permit’ system. ‘Ek Vidhan Ek Pradhan Ek Nishan’. ‘Jahan Hue Balidan Mukherjee woh Kashmir Humara hai, Woh Kashmir Humara hai jo sare ka sara hai’. These slogans pitched passionately on the political landscape of J & K as well as entire country.
Time bears testimony that insertion of Article 370 for a single Muslim-majority state of J & K has more been misunderstood and misinterpreted by a section of vested interests in the Valley of Kashmir as ‘peanuts-worth price for going with India’ and less a benevolent, liberal measure by the framers of Indian Constitution. A concession was rather painted and projected as a compulsion.
The result was that National Conference which has ruled the State for a major period and its three generations leading the State as Chief Ministers gave but false hopes to the youth and a side-bye to ‘politics of development’
Sheikh Abdullah, for whom the popular, progressive Maharaja was dethroned and government offered to him on a platter with a ‘special status’ for J & K, was later on dismissed and got arrested by Nehru and a case popularly known as Kashmir conspiracy case was registered. His family and favorites were charged for receiving funds, typewriters and explosives from Pakistan, with a view to starting an armed struggle against India.
May I quote Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, immediate successor of Sheikh Abdullah, in his radio broadcast:-
“A fraud was being committed on the interests of the country. The slogan of independence was dangerous. Under the control of an imperialist power an independent Kashmir would have been a serious danger for the people of India and Pakistan.”
His son, Farooq Abdullah was caught saying, “Pakistan-administered Kashmir belongs to Pakistan and this side to India. I tell this to them, and to the world. This is not going to change. Let them fight how many wars they want to,” “Internal autonomy is our right. They should restore it. Only then the peace will return.”
PDP’s father-daughter duo ruled the State repeatedly as Chief Ministers propounded the concept of double currency, self-rule and opening up of borders with a hostile country like Pakistan.
Mehbooba went to the extent of saying that, “Who is doing it? Why are they doing it? (challenging the Article 35A). .. I have no doubt in saying that there will be no one to hold the national flag.”
Kashmiri Pandits were murdered, pillaged, raped and ultimately driven out of their homeland. Sikhs massacred. Worst hatred brewed against Shia and Pahari Muslims. Buddhists were looked upon as second-class citizens. Fundamentalist frenzy and bigotry ruled the roost amongst assertions of establishing a Nizam-e-Mustafa in J & K.
Displaced persons of 1947, 1965 and 1971 who discarded ‘two-nation’ and ‘theocratic state’ theory of Jinnah and came to this state were denied right to employment and to acquire land too.
Valmikis and Gorkhas came to the State on the assurance of Sheikh Abdullah. And his offsprings dilly-dallied with their fundamental right of citizenship and voting rights.
Resettlement Act was passed by JK Assembly in 1982. It sought to grant ‘permit for resettlement’ those who left J & K in 1947. Another law, Evacuees Property Act, still in force, preserves lands and houses for those people who rejected the ‘secular’ idea of India while fleeing from J & K in 1947.
Almost 40,000 Rohingyas were settled in Jammu and Ladakh regions with full connivance and contrivance of the successive governments. Attempts were afoot to give voting rights to them. It was a possible attempt to create another Assam-like situation in J&K.
The process of unification of J & K had started during the times of Nehru. Post dismissal of government and Sheikh’s imprisonment, started, central laws and central institutions found their entry into J&K, by tits and bits.
Ultimately it was 5th of August 2019 that PM Modi took up the gauntlet and virtually wiped away separate constitution, separate flag and separate legal structure from J&K.
It was the biggest tribute to the Maharaja, His legacy and His standpoint on Jammu & Kashmir.
Post 5Th August scenario has seen people of J & K inching closer to rest of the country. There should not be any room for a gulf or misunderstanding between Jammu and Kashmir.
Let specters of past do not haunt and obsess us, any more.
The ‘Yugpurush’ of Indian political firmament, Narendra Bhai Modi, with ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas Sabka Vishwaas,’ as his very hallmark, seems to be in a combative mood to take up the lost thread from Vajpayee’s pragmatism on the issue.
(The columnist practices law at J&K High Court)
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