news details |
|
|
| `Get it done before new calendar goes to print' | | Holiday on Hari Singh's birthday | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Oct 23: Last year, the Governor, Satya Pal Malik rejected the BJP demand seeking a public holiday on Maharaja Hari Singh's birthday which falls on September 23. But times have changed and so has the state of Jammu and Kashmir. In the re-organised Jammu and Kashmir, the Jammu people see a chance of fulfillment of their long pending demand-a holiday on the former Dogra King's birthday.
The new state calendar will go for printing and publication in the next couple of months which leaves the BJP with less than sixty days to get September 23 declared a holiday.
Pertinently an order issued by the Governor administration last year restricted the state holidays to 25 under the Negotiable Instruments Act.
The order disappointed the people of Jammu and the BJP had to eat a humble pie.
The order evoked severe reaction from Jammu region with Vikramaditya Singh, grandson of Hari Singh, resigning from the PDP for not declaring holiday on his grandfather's birth anniversary.
Much to the disappointment of the BJP, the order included December 5, birth anniversary of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and July 13, the martyrs' day in the holiday list.
July 13, it is in place to mention here is observed as a black day in Jammu region. It is believed that some shops owned by Hindus in historic Maharaj Gunj were looted by the rioters on that day. The events of July 13 are also perceived as acts of treason in Jammu. "The importance given to July 13 by successive state governments has found no takers in Jammu," said a prominent lawyer from Jammu.
The order evoked severe reaction from within the BJP with Vikramaditya Singh, grandson of Hari Singh, resigning from the PDP for not declaring holiday on his grandfather's birth anniversary.
Hari Singh, therefore remains unsung notwithstanding the immense love he had for Jammu region. His `worst enemy' Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah writes about him in his biography Aatish-e-Chinar (page 289): "He (Maharaja Hari Singh) wrote in his will that after his death his ashes were to be scattered over the Jammu region only."
Champions of Jammu cause have urged the concerned especially the BJP to take up the matter with the administration in the coming days and get Hari Singh's birthday declared a public holiday before the new calendar goes for print. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
