Visionary leader

Mohd Shabir Khatana
“It is Law of Nature that in order to run the system of this universe smoothly Almighty blesses many persons belonging to his creation with sufficient abilities and capicities so that they can work for serving the society with their utmost efficiency and devotion. When a person is choosen by Almighty with his grace and blessing for serving the society then no one can harm him because no one is more powerful then Almighty .
A person blessed by Almighty always succeeds in every sphere of his life and there was a similar nature of Blessing of Allah on Chowdhary Mohd Hussain sahib who was provided a lot of opportunities for serving the society till his last breath and he did it honestly in a most honest and efficient manner as explained: “Eighteen years ago, Rajouri lost a great visionary and a popular political leader in the shape of Chowdhary Mohammad Hussain who remained 5 times MLA and former Minister and who played a vital role in establishment of district Rajouri in 1968. Known for his qualities of crusader against casteism and a reason of bridging gap of communal divide, he left no stone unturned to change the fate of downtrodden sections of the society who are remembering him today and will also remember him till their last breath. “People have been observing his death anniversary on 30th of September every year as Chowdhary Mohammad Hussain left this world on September 30, 2002 when he was Minister in Farooq Abdullah Government. But his good deeds are recognized by the people and even after 19 years of his death, he is remembered today because of his uniques qualities and service rendered by him for the betterment of Society and the Nation.
Before throwing light on his life, it is very important to know in details the family background of such visionary poltical leader.“Chowdhary Mohammad Hussain received basic schooling from Peeri area, passed 8th from Government School of Shopian and completed Matriculation from Punjab University Lahore.
He joined services as Panchayat Inspector and resigned from Rural Development department as Block Development Officer on the demand and desire of public. During his services career he helped the people a lot and performed his duties honestly with dedication and devotion up to the maximum satisfaction of general public and always adopted pro-people approach and it was the platform which helped him to become a popular and an expert politician of the earstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in general and District Rajouri – Darhal – Budhal constituency in particular.
“ Chowdhary Mohammad Hussain married with the daughter of Zaildar Dewal Ali Mohammad namely Begum Fatima (Mai Sahiba) who was a humble lady and who rendered her full co-operation and support in shaping the political journey of her husband. His father remained Nambardar till his death in 1984 and after that wife of Chowhary Mohammad Hussain took over as first lady Nambardar in District Rajouri and she remained Nambardar till her death in 2016.“After resigning from active services, Chowdhary Mohammad Hussain joined politics on the demand and desire of people of Darhal-Budhal constituency who wanted to see him as their representative in Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir.
In this way he contested first election in 1967 and won it and after that he remained MLA 5 times and also worked as Minister in Farooq Abdullah Government during which he played vital role in overall development of the region.
“When Chowdhary Mohammad Hussain took over as MLA, he launched campaign to get justice for people of Rajouri. It is pertinent to mention here that importance of Rajouri was sidelined first by Dogra rulers and then by elected Governments in Jammu & Kashmir either it was Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad or Mir Qasim Government, Rajouri was attached to either Reasi or Poonch and its central importance was ignored. Even before by Dogra rulers also when Rajouri was part of Bimber tehsil and thereafter during 1904 it was annexed to Reasi. Thus there was great injustice with the people of Rajouri who used to travel either to Bimber , Reasi or Poonch for redressal of their day to day problems . “The strong commitment, interest and desire of Chowdhary Mohammad Hussain for getting the Justice done to the people of Rajouri gave fruitfull results in 1968 when on January 1, 1968 Rajouri was given independent district status by the Government of earstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. In this way there was great role and contribution of Chowdhary Mohammad Hussain in providing district status to Rajouri.
“In his political life, Chowdhary Mohammad Hussain always raised his voice against casteism. Despite belonging to Gujjar community, he did equal justice with all the people of Rajouri in general and the people of Darhal-Budhal constituency in particular irrespective of caste , creed, race, Sect or religion on the analogy of sun because sun provides equal light to all ir-respective of any particular criteria .
He was a secular leader and he never used to look people with the lens of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Gujjar, Pahari, Shia, Sunni etc. He favoured all in an equal manner by applying same yardstick and provided justice to all during his entire beautiful political career. It is well known fact that there was great Gujjar – Pahari divide in Rajouri Poonch which tarnished the image of the area for many decades but Chowdhary Mohammad Hussain launched crusade against this divide and bridged the gap between all which is testimony of his great public support.“People of Rajouri, especially people belong to downtrodden community were ignored and no Government was favouring them for doing something for their upliftment but he worked hard and played a vital role in uplifting all such communities and provide maximum possible justice to all of them.
If all the downtrodden and depressed classes in Rajouri are living a standard life today, it is because of the sincere efforts of Chowdhary Mohammad Hussain who fought for their genuine cause and got the justice delivered to these communities.
Chowdhary Mohammad Hussain was a great leader in action having many unique traits which were not found in any person or other political leader of Darhal- Budhal. It was due to his such unique traits , honesty and sincerity that voters always voted in his favour and he was elected time and again and sent to Assembly for serving the society.
He always favoured democratic set up of government and lived a simple and honest life.