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| Sheikh assured loyalty to Hari Singh for personal power | | Conspiracy against Jammu -- II | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Feb 10: On October 26, 1947, Jammu and Kashmir acceded to the Indian Dominion. On October 27, the nominated Governor-General of India, Lord Mountbatten, informed Hari Singh that his Government had accepted the accession offer. The Governor General's letter said: "It is my Govern-ment's wish that as soon as law and order has been restored in Kashmir and her soil cleared of the invaders the question of the State's accession should be settled by a reference to the People." The suggestion was both outrageous and unconstitutional. He also wrote: "My Government and I note with satisfaction that Your Highness has decided to invite Sheikh Abdullah to form an interim Government to work as your Prime Minister."
A day earlier, Nehru wrote to Hari Singh that VP Menon had returned from Jammu "this morning and informed me of his talks there. He gave me the Instrument of Accession and the Standstill Agreement, which you (Hari Singh) had signed and I saw also your letters to the Governor-General of India. Allow me to congratulate you on the wise decision that you have taken. I earnestly hope that they (Sheikh Abdullah and his men) will lead not only to the effective protection of Kashmir State in the present but to the freedom and well-being of Kashmir and India as a whole." Nehru in his letter of November 13, 1947, again pointed out to Hari Singh that "the only person who could deliver the goods in Kashmir was Sheikh Abdullah…"
On March 1, 1948, N Gopalaswami Ayyangar wrote a letter to Hari Singh and it read like this: "Messrs VP Menon and (Mehr Chand Majajan (Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir) are going (back) to Jammu this afternoon to discuss and finalize with you the draft of the proclamation which Your Highness has to issue for appointing Abdullah as Prime Minister and others on his advice. The draft has been very carefully considered by myself, Pandit ji (Nehru) and Sardar ji (Home Minister Sardar Patel) and we are of the opinion that the whole of it should be accepted by you. Anything less would not satisfy the requirements of the present situation (read would not satisfy Sheikh Abdullah). As a friend of yours (he was never a friend), I consider it most important that Your Highness must make a very big gesture in order to rally the maximum percentage of the population of the State behind you with the help of Abdullah…It is further very important that everything that has happened in the past should be forgotten and forgiven and that Your Highness should take Sheikh Abdullah into your fullest confidence. In fact, I was almost going to suggest that you give up your usual reserve, come out in the open and put yourself at the head of your people, both Muslims and non-Muslims, for the purpose of consolidating and strengthening the large volume of support for preserving the integrity of the State and maintaining its accession to India, which thanks to Sheikh Abdullah and the Indian Army, you have already behind you."
On March 24, Sheikh Abdullah wrote to Hari Singh: "The situation in Jammu and Kashmir State is, as you are well aware, a difficult one and requires the most careful handling. The emergency continues and has to be dealt with as such till normal conditions are restored. The burden of a Prime Minister in these circumstances will be a heavy one. He cannot function effectively without the fullest cooperation of his colleagues and the people as well as, of course, Your Highness. I have consulted some of my colleagues, who were available and have come to the conclusion that it is my duty in these circumstances to undertake this burden. I trust that in the heavy work ahead I shall have your Highness; full help and cooperation. I appreciate the spirit in which you have made the offer of the Prime Minister to me and on my part I assure Your Highness that I shall fully reciprocate it" (your gesture).
It was on March 5, 1948 that the proclamation came, drafted by Gopalaswami and approved by the Government of India and Sheikh Abdullah. It was under this proclamation that Sheikh Abdullah became Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. With his appointment as Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir commenced an era that would not only see the people of Jammu province virtually becoming slaves of Kashmir, Hari Singh quitting his own state, communalism and politics of revenge assuming alarming proportions and India facing onslaught after onslaught. (To be continued) |
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