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| No Special Status For J&K | | Unified political structure for princely states, Mountbatten told Constituent Assembly | |
STARK REALITY
RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Nov 11: “Jammu and Kashmir is entitled to have a separate dispensation,” say Kashmiri leaders of all hues. Theirs’ is highly flawed assertion. Even the nominated Governor-General of India Lord Mountbatten had rejected out-of-hand the idea of any of the princely states getting a separate dispensation. On the contrary, he had expressed himself in favour “a unified political structure covering over 300 million people.” Kashmiri leaders should go through the Indian Constituent Assembly debates and refashion their whole formulation. Why to look at the whole of the debate and waste time? They should go through the speech Lord Mountbatten delivered on August 15, 1947 in the Indian Constituent Assembly.
Let this scribe make the task of the votaries of a special dispensation for Jammu and Kashmir easy and quote here the relevant portions from the Governor-General’s address to the Indian Constituent Assembly on the day India attained independence. Such an exercise on the part of this scribe would help the Kashmiri leaders understand the meaning of what Lord Mountbatten said on the floor of the Indian Constituent Assembly.
Addressing the Indian Constituent Assembly, Mountbatten, among other things, said: “Let me now pass to the Indian States (read princely states). The plan of June 3rd, (1947, dealt exclusively with the problem of transfer of power in British India; and the only reference to the (princely) States was a paragraph which recognized that on the transfer of power, all the Indian (princely) states – 565 of them – would become independent. Here then was another gigantic problem and there was apprehension on all sides. But after the formation of the States Department it was possible for me, as Crown Representative, to tackle this great question. Thanks to the farsighted statesman, Sardar Patel, Member in-charge of States Department, a scheme he produced which appeared to me to be equally in the interests of the (princely) States as of the Dominion of India. The overwhelming majority of the (princely) States are geographically linked with India, and, therefore, this Dominion (read Indian Dominion) had by far the bigger stake in the solution of this problem. It is a great triumph for the realism and sense of responsibility of the Rulers and the Governments of the (princely) States, as well as for the Government of India, that it was possible to produce an Instrument of Accession which was equally acceptable to both sides; and one, moreover, so simple and so straight forward that within less than three weeks practically all the (princely) States concerned had signed the Instrument of Accession and the Standstill Agreement. There is thus established a unified political structure covering over 300 million people (in the princely states) and the major part of this sub-continent.”
Even a cursory glance at what Lord Mountbatten said regarding the princely States would lead one to conclude that there was nothing whatever in his address that even remotely suggested that any of the princely States would be given a special political dispensation within the Indian Dominion. His whole address suggested in unambiguous terms that there would be “a unified political structure” in the whole of the country (Constituent Assembly Debates, Official Report, Vol. V, Reprinted by Lok Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi, Second Reprint, 1989, PP. 15-16).
Will Chief Omar Abdullah and others of his ilk take into consideration this stark reality, revise their communal formulation and work for the well being of the people of Jammu and Kashmir? They must do so. They must stop indulging in politics of rabble-rousing, which has already brought death and destruction and disturbed the socio-religious and political equilibrium in the sensitive state. On its part, New Delhi should also set the record on accession and the related issues straight and undertake steps that integrate the state fully into India by scrapping the separatist and essentially communal Article 370.
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