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| Late Sheikh Abdullah’s descendents spilling the beans about “Shere Kashmir’s” ambition of independent Kashmir | | |
By Yash Bhasin
Dr Sheikh Mustafa Kamal, National Conference MLA from Hazratbal in Srinagar city, a former minister in Dr Farooq Abdullah government, who is youngest son of late Sheikh Mohammad Adbullah, younger brother of Dr Farooq Abdullah and uncle of the present J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, might have given went to his frustration and disgruntlement, for his being ignored by the National Conference leadership, by not inducting him in Omar Abdullah cabinet, by stating that his late father Sheikh Abdullah stood for independent Kashmir and that NC always wanted Kashmir to remain neutral between India and Pakistan. He has blamed Pak aggression of J&K in 1947 for pushing J&K into the lap of India, meaning by if Pakistan, precisely its founder and first Governor General, Mohammad Ali Jinnah had not acted in hest by pushing raiders, followed by the regular Pak army into J&K, Sheikh Abdullah’s dream of independent Kashmir would have materialized. By taking the line entirely different from what the National Conference has been publically taking, during last 62 years that Sheikh Abdullah’s preference for J&K casting its lot with secular India instead of theocratic Islamic state of Pakistan was based on his ideological commitment and to secularism and socialism and stating that the National Conference and Sheikh Abdullah preferred J&K exceeding to India due to the compulsion of situation created by Pak aggression of the state, Mustafa Kamal may be aiming to embarrass the dominant present National Conference leadership and projecting himself to be closed to the secessionist and separatists in Kashmir, who are ruling the roost in the valley at present. Yet the views expressed by him in a party meeting held in Srinagar, to finalize the arrangements for observing 27th death anniversary of late Sheikh Abdullah, is of great significance from various angles.
In the meeting where Mustafa Kamal expressed these views, were present many top NC leaders, including Finance Minister A R Rathar, Rural Development Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar and virtually permanent party General Secretary Sheikh Nazir, a nephew of late Sheikh Abdullah. None contradicted him. Rather Sheikh Nazir endorsed Mustafa Kamal’s views in this regard. Over two years back a grand daughter of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, Nyla Ali Khan had expressed similar views in an article written by her and published in Kashmir Times, in its issue of June 28, 2007 and also carried later in Kashmir Images.
The opening lines of Nyla Ali Khan’s article read as “Although Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah viewed the accession of J&K to India as a strategic and pragmatic necessity and sought to justify it by deploying the rhetoric of socialism and secularism, he harboured hopes for the creation of a sovereign Kashmir. Abdullah made some controversial observations in an interview with the London Observer. He voiced his concern over the increased vulnerability and instability of J&K between two countries that were hostile towards each other. Abdullah expressed his solicitude over the political and economic hardships that the location of the state would cause its populace. The only viable option, according to him, would be for J&K to have a neutral status vis-à-vis both India and Pakistan”.
Besides stating that Sheikh Abdullah’s first choice was independent Kashmir, Dr Mustafa Kamal has also stated that the accession of J&K entered into by Maharaja Hari Singh, with the agreement of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and ratified by the then Governor General of India Lord Mount Baton, on behalf of the Indian government, was conditional. He has, however not mentioned that what was the condition about J&K’s accession with India signed by Maharaja Hari Singh on behalf of the state, with the soul authority for the same vested in him, under the Indian Independence Act passed by the British government, with the princely states given the right to exceed to either of the two dominions, India and Pakistan.
Mr. Mustafa’s assertion about accession being conditional are not borne by the facts of history. In fact the instrument of accession with India signed by Maharaja Hari Singh on October 26, 1947 and ratified by Lord Mount Baton, the then Governor General of India on behalf of the Indian government, was the same as was signed by rulers of other princely states. There was no condition attached to the instrument of accession. Nor had Sheikh Abdullah, who was taken on board by the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and who had categorically conveyed his agreement with the J&K’s accession to India, raised any hassle or insisted for incorporating any clause or condition for the accession. It was however Pandit Nehru who had later offered that the accession will be got ratified by the people of J&K, through free exercise of their choice, after Pakistan withdraws aggression from the whole of state. He had made similar offer in the United Nations, where he took the case complaining against Pak aggression. The Article 370 which provides special status to J&K and empowers the state to have its separate constitution, was kept in the Indian constitution, which was drafted later and adopted in 1950. Thus Mustafa Kamal’s claim of any conditionality to the accession stands falsified.
Nevertheless, the claim made in this behalf by Mustafa Kamal and NC General Secretary Sheikh Nazir as well as earlier made in an article by a grand daughter of Sheikh Abdullah about the Sheikh at heart standing for independent Kashmir and that his endorsement of accession with India was only a tactical move, has the truth. On his release from prison after India’s independence and partition of the country, effected with the intervention of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the Sheikh had given went to his mind and inclination, by stating in his public speeches that they had launched a concerted struggle against the autocratic rule of Dogra dynasty, not to join India or Pakistan, but for making the people their own masters and it were they who have to decide their ultimate future. Even after power in the state was transferred to him by the Maharaja, as desired by the Indian Prime Minister Nehru, Sheikh Abdullah always spoke in a diplomatic and equivocal language about his real intention, which amply betrayed his entertaining the dream of independent Kashmir, with himself as its absolute ruler. There are also strong reasons to believe that if Pakistan, precisely its creator and the first Governor General M A Jinnah had offered him absolute power in J&K, as was done by Indian Prime Minister Nehru, Sheikh Abdullah might have opted for joining Pakistan. But Jinnah had preference for the Muslim Conference and its supreme leader Gulam Abbas and his other colleagues. It was under this background that Sheikh Abdullah put his weight behind J&K joining the Indian dominion. He had even sent his emissary, Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq to Pakistan for negotiation with the leaders of that dominion. But as he got cold shoulder from Jinnah, while against it Abdullah and his colleagues received warmth from Nehru, who had already amply shown his weakness for Sheikh Abdullah and allergy towards Maharaja Hari Singh, which led to Sheikh Abdullah giving preference for joining with India.
However even after that Sheikh Abdullah invariably betrayed his real mindset of independent Kashmir. As he even hob knobbed with the US representatives, for carving out independent Kashmir, it led to dismissal of his government and his arrest on August 9, 1953. Thus the claims made to this effect by the descendents of Sheikh Abdullah, after half a century, go to justify the action taken by the Indian government against Sheikh and the agitation launched by Praja Parishad in Jammu, which led to Sheikh Abdullah coming out in his true colours, throwing away the mask of his loyalty and commitment to the democratic and secular state of India.
It is almost after six decades that the descendents of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah have spilled the beans and confirmed the allegations leveled against him by some leaders of Jammu, over the apprehension on which the entire Praja Parishad agitation from 1949 to 1953 was based. That Sheikh Abdullah actually entertained the dream to become an independent sovereign ruler of Kashmir, from the very beginning, has been categorically alleged, with some sound circumstantial evidence, by Prof Balraj Madok in his several books on Kashmir politics as well as by a research scholar of J&K’s history from 1931 onwards, till little after the power in the state was transferred to Sheikh Abdullah, after Maharaja Hari Singh was forced to self exile from the state, Dr Major Braham Singh in his book “British Diplomacy in Kashmir”. The strain of Praja Parishad agitation, with the main slogan of, “Ek Nishan, Ek Vidhan, Ek Pradhan”, was actually triggered by the apprehensions about Sheikh Abdullah’s real motive of creating independent sovereign Kashmir state with himself as its absolute ruler. The separate status of Jammu and Kashmir state in the Indian constitution under Article 370, providing for a separate state constitution, with its own flag and head of the state with nomenclature as Sadare-Riyasat, with actually and escape route laid by Sheikh Abdullah, taking advantage of the weakness of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for him and the latter’s antipathy to Maharaja Hari Singh, to ultimately pave the way for independent Kashmir. The allegations to this regard leveled by the Praja Parishad leaders in the state and their supporters in the country were dubbed as communally motivated. So much so that the provocative anti India outburst of Sheikh Abdullah, which betrayed secessionist overtones, in 1952 and 1953, which created a panic reaction in some circles in the union government as well as the Congress party, leading to overthrow of Abdullah government and his arrest on 9 August 1953, is attributed by some opponents of Praja Parishad movement of having been the outcome of the provocative acts of Praja Parishad and the communal minded people of Jammu.
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