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| Jammu, Ladakh have not given mandate to Omar decide their future | | Turning clock back to pre-1953 position | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 25: NC working president and Leader of Opposition in Assembly is a broken-hearted man. He is not happy because former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had turned weak and as a result J&K could not be resolved. And as an alternative to his solution, Omar Abdullah has asked New Delhi to turn the clock back to the pre-1953 position.
"India and Pakistan had come 'incredibly close' during Pakistani dictator General Pervez Musharraf's time to settle the Kashmir issue. I guess time ran out for us because it took us so long to put aside the suspicion of General Musharaf as the architect of the Kargil war. By the time we realized we can do business with him, he wasn't nearly as powerful as we needed (him to be)," Omar Abdullah was quoted as saying.
Pervez Musharraf had put forth a solution to the so-called Kashmir issue. It meant India-Pakistan joint-control over J&K, self-governance and demilitarization of the state. In other words, it stood for a regime under which Pakistan and India would have co-equal sovereign powers in J&K.
Prime Minister AB Vajpayee and PM Manmohan Singh had no problem with this solution but they couldn't move forward because of pressure from the below. People voted out Vajpayee in 2004 before he could adopt the Musharraf formula. Manmohan Singh also failed because of the fall of Pervez Musharraf.
That's the reason Omar Abdullah is singing in the strain of the swan. And his suggestion that New Delhi should turn clock back to pre-1953 position is as dangerous as the Musharraf's divisive, break-India and destroy-minorities formula.
"His party would want the clock to be turned back to pre-1953 position…The internal part of the problem is equally tricky. We need to restore the autonomous position to the full extent possible," he was quoted as saying.
What would turning back the clock to the pre-1953 position mean? It would mean rollback of all the Central laws and Central institutions applied to J&K after August 9, 1953. It would also mean the revival of the J&K Constitutional Act of 1939, under which the ruling elite would exercise unbridled legislative, executive and judicial powers, and the common people would have no say whatsoever in the governance of the state. It would also mean revival of the Press and Publication Act of 1932 under which the J&K Council of Ministers could seize any press on the charge that it published a seditious article or news item against the duly-elected government. Besides, it would mean the revival of justice system under which the final interpreter of the constitution shall be the Council of Ministers, and not the judiciary.
To be more precise, a return to pre-1953 position would mean just a step short of complete independence from India and total destruction of minorities in the state. People of Jammu and Ladakh have not given any mandate to Omar Abdullah and ilk to decide their fate. Jammu and Ladakh are their own master and it is their fundamental and natural right to shape and mould their socio-cultural and politico-economic future within India and under the Indian Constitution. |
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