Early Times Report
JAMMU, Apr 11: Ridiculing the demand for restoration of pre-1953 autonomy of J&K, the former Union Minister, Prof. Chaman Lal Gupta termed it as misnomer and obnoxious. No right thinking person, he said can think even to have those black days back as much water has flown in Jehlum and Chenab during past over six decades. In a statement, Prof.Gupta said that prior to 1953, there was no jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, Election Commission and even that of Comptroller and Auditor General of India in this State. There was a strange dispensation and new rulers were totalitarian. The extent of intolerance could be gauged that great Visionary Dogra leader, Pt. Prem Nath who organized a Nationalist Party, The All J&K Praja Parishad, with a democratic outlook, was not only arrested but also shifted to Srinagar jail to face the vagaries of severe winter for months together. His supporters were put to torture but for satyagrah to seek the release of Pt. Dogra and others who were jailed without any trial. Several youths were shot dead while trying to hoist the tricolor, he recalled and pointed out that in the absence of jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, the towering opposition leader of Parliament Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherji was arrested for entering the State without "Permit" and detained in Srinagar, where he died in mysterious circumstances but no enquiry was held despite the demand of his aged mother as also by the CM, of Bengal, B.C Roy. |
