Shiban Khaibri
Those political leaders who suffer from foot -in – mouth disease usually do exercises of ”Ulta choor kotwal ko dantey” or the proverbial – the pot calling the kettle black – after they get themselves exposed and fairly embarrassed, if not shamed due to out of context and irrelevant utterances. In other words, when such people speak things which they should not , realising after directing the tongue to speak in a particular tone and tenor, immediately very often, do a volte-face act by saying , “My statement was quoted out of context” , or what is attributed to me as having said is factually incorrect” or ”my words were misinterpreted ” or now, the septuagenarian Congress leader Digvijay Singh saying, “the BJP leaders did not understand my statement, they misinterpreted my English words” – referring to his intentionally dished out controversial statement on abrogation of much vexed , superfluous and redundant Article 370 giving ”special status” to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and about his unfounded assertion regarding “reservation in Services” in respect of hounded out Kashmiri Pandits. English language , by such statement of Singh , is not fairly known to the BJP leaders but only to two or three top Congress leaders which comprise , now Digvijay Singh also , is a new revelation of the ….Old Party. So far, we were given to understand that a few most important things were the sole and absolute monopoly of Congress Party like “they gave us independence from the British ” , ”they are very much peculiarly secular ” , they alone knew to “rule” the country and they alone know how (not) to “remove poverty” . Now, new absolute right – that of knowing better rather correct English, too, was the baby and the property of Congress party is a new find , an interesting one, indeed.
How can any charge of misinterpreting Digvijay Singh’s English hold any water when with an attempt to appease his Pakistani friend Journalist and ostensibly Pakistan, in Clubhouse chat upon being asked what the Congress Party would do on Article 370 if it happens to return to power at the centre. Singh is on record to have said that …”it was an extremely sad decision and the Congress will relook into the issue “(once the Modi Government had gone). Now, even a school going student studying elementary English would explain better what “relook ” meant . That, perhaps, meant to revise, to change, to alter, to modify , and to review. If literally even ”review” is explained, that means whether to continue or to discontinue. Digvijay Singh unequivocally declared, in simpler parlance, that if Congress returned to power anytime at the centre, it would restore Article 370 because as per his thinking “Democracy was not there in Kashmir when they revoked Article 370, then ”Insaniyat” was not there because they had put everyone behind bars”. Democracy is there in Kashmir and at the centre only when Congress in coalition with whichever party or group of parties in hotchpotch rules the country and also Jammu and Kashmir and since not only Digvijay Singh but his leader Rajiv Gandhi too pooh poohs about Democracy which according to him was nowhere in the country (after 2014) and the later be-tests about it even from other countries he visits.
Singh goes on to explain which hurts something terrible like “Kashmiryat” to the hounded out and grossly injustice(d) Kashmiri Pandits as “something that is basically the fundamentals of secularism , because in a Muslim majority state , argues Singh, there was a Hindu Raja and both were together.” What precisely he wants to convey by saying “Both were “together”? This Congress leader knows not a word about July 13, 1931 , why that happened and what a massive resistance the Maharaja had to face only because he was a Hindu and how the minority Hindus in Kashmir were targeted on that fateful day simply because they were of the same religion as the Maharaja. “Both were together ” is again a misnomer and a queer phrase coined after Mr. Nehru learnt from somewhere that most controversial and absurd political term “Secularism”. Why this vague and one sided used secularism was incorporated in the preamble in 1977 by the then Congress government headed by Smt. Indira Gandhi after the historical blunder of flawed partition of the country was committed by M. K. Gandhi and Mr. Nehru in 1947 is not hard to comprehend.
And this ”Kashmiryat” , Mr. Singh may note was nowhere to be found when Kashmiri Pandits were ordered to march out of Kashmir. This “Kashmiryat” was invisible when selective killings of innocent frightened Kashmiri Pandits were taking place in broad day light. This “Kashmiryat” was elusive and somewhere in deep hiding when massacres took place in Gool, Wandhama , Nadimarg and other places even after the residual Kashmiri Pandits still had here and there living in Kashmir. What Kashmiryat Singh is talking about ? Has Digvijay Singh heard those most insulting and provocative slogans against the original indigenous inhabitants of Kashmir in 1990 , repeating of which is tantamount to opening further the excruciatingly painful wounds of the beleaguered community . Why to open those chapters which expose so called secularism , so called Kashmiryat and Insaniyat and the continuous taciturnity of Congress throughout and what not.
Thank God, Singh has chosen the most lucrative, power wielding, fortunes amassing, eternally dividends paying profession called active politics and not having become a Historian. Had that unfortunately happened, he would have been all sympathies for invader Babar , praises for Aurangzeb’s “secularism”, his dreaded Governor Iftikhar Khan who was appointed by the zealot Mughal King in 1674 A.D. to rule Kashmir to go in for a massive evangelistic campaign ruthlessly in Kashmir . This peculiar secular philosophy calls invader Mughals as “the great” but never Samadar Gupt ”the greatest” or Kashmiri Emperor Lalitaditya Muktaped as India’s Alexander “the Great”. That speaks for many important Roads in Delhi and elsewhere named after intolerant , tyrant and zealot Rulers who invaded and subjugated the native Indians. Thank providence again that Digvijay Singh was not a Historian , he could skilfully have termed the exodus and genocide (akin to) of the original inhabitants of Kashmir , the Kashmiri Pandits, in 1990 as a “cock and bull story to deride and cast aspersions on something like he calls Kashmiryat”.
The most detestable and condemnable and bundle of white lies lay in the false assertion that “Kashmiri Pandits were given reservation in Kashmir in government services.” After the flawed and grossly erred partition of the country in 1947 , the greatest human tragedy was in 1990 when an entire Kashmiri Pandit community comprising more than 5 lakh persons all innocent, law abiding , highly accommodating , ardent believers of ”Live and let live” , patriotic, believers of endurance and tolerance – were forcibly hounded out of Kashmir lock stock and barrel . Did even a soul from the beleaguered and persecuted community take law in own hands not to speak of taking to violent means ? And now adding insult to their wounds – open wounds which are oozing for the last 32 years by spreading canards of “Reservation in Government Services” is unfortunate and highly contemptuous. Which Congress leader including Digvijay Singh went on a token symbolic hunger strike even for a day for the rights of Kashmiri Pandits? Where did this much talked of Secularism go in the case of the Kashmiri Pandits whose one generation perished in the hope of going back to their roots, second one is on the brink of going in oblivion resulting in a few years from now, total eclipse of this community looking to their high death rate and lowest birth rate and going back to roots even after 32 years in forced “exile” , on their terms and conditions still eluding them.
Digvijay Singh has other priorities like most of the Congress leaders. Since Osama Bin-Laden appears to him as “Jee” and in evangelist Zakir Nayak he sees “spreading peace ” and wishing and addressing Zakir’s gathering that “spreading of such Shanti Ka Paigaam” by Zakir Sahib across the country was need of the hour”, on the other hand, all ills and troubles in this country , he sees the causes and the roots in the RSS. However, he knows as his conscience must be telling him that he speaks not facts but he has the political compulsion to do so and besides that being probably his Party’s stand too vis-a-vis Vote Bank Politics. Let him do that but why should he spread a canard like there having ever been any grain of so called “Reservation” for Kashmiri Pandits in public service who otherwise historically have been a cent percent literate community , experts in the fields of Persian language having been invited even by a few Mughal Kings to enlighten and teach their children.
Coming to any “relook” on the Article 370 , Digvijay Singh Ji is requested to forget about it in totality . No power on earth can do that and since enough blunders have been committed by Congress leaders in and about Kashmir right from October 1947 , especially by Mr. Nehru – be it not chasing Pakistani raiders and Army beyond the borders of Jammu and Kashmir and facilitating that country to forcibly occupy what we call POK , followed by knocking at the doors of the UNO , granting the “special Status” thus putting a tag of “suspense” with Kashmir and subsequent goofs in Shimla Agreement thus contributing to the mess that Kashmir turned into. Hence, Congress and any of its leaders must contribute positively towards peace returning to Jammu and Kashmir in absolute manner than try to bake political loaves out of it. Much water has flown down the Veth or the Jehlum which they must bear in mind.
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