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| Sheikh Abdullah sitting on sofa, Dogra rulers on the mat | | Humiliating & Provocative | |
MINCING NO WORDS
NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, June 13: That the attitude of the Kashmiri leadership towards the Dogra kings and the Dogras has not undergone any change whatever could be seen from Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s Twitter. On June 11, he posted on his twitter a collection from his family archive half a dozen photographs of his grandfather Sheikh Abdullah. Just look at these photographs and you would find a photograph that is not ordinary. The photograph is humiliating and provocative. It is a manifestation of the Kashmiri leadership’s contempt for the Dogra rulers and the Dogras. In this photograph you would find Sheikh Abdullah sitting on sofa and the Dogra rulers like Maharaja Pratap Singh and Maharaja Hari Singh and one Dogra Maharani sitting on a mat.
It is indeed surprising that certain anti-Dogra elements in Kashmir are willfully insulting the Dogras and Karan Singh and his sons are watching these taunts and insults as mute spectators. When will the Dogra wake up from their deep slumber and protect their self-respect? However, the question is: what prompted the Chief Minister to post such a photograph on his twitter at a time when the situation in Jammu is already volatile? Does he want a conflict at a time when the tempers are already running very high in the Jammu province? Why did he do it? Only he can answer this question.
It is pertinent to mention here that a section of Kashmiri leadership has been bitterly criticizing the Dogra rulers since 1847. The Dogras of Jammu had signed a treaty with British Government in March 1846. It is called the Treaty of Amritsar. It was under this treaty that Kashmir became part of the Jammu Kingdom and not the vice-versa and thus came into being Jammu & Kashmir State. The Dogras rulers ruled over the state for as many as 101 years. They handed down to the people of Kashmir a just administration. In fact, it was with the emergence of Jammu & Kashmir State that Dogras started getting a raw deal and Kashmir a preferential treatment.
Some vested interests in Kashmir, particularly the academics, commentators and politicians term the Dogra ruler as “oppressive” and “alien.” Such elements had opposed the treaty in 1847. Since then, such elements demanded from time to time abrogation of this historic treaty. The last time such elements demanded abrogation of Treaty of Amritsar was in 1946, when Sheikh Abdullah and his Kashmir-based National Conference started “quit Kashmir movement.” Their view was that the Dogras had “purchased the life, honour and dignity” of Kashmiri Muslims by paying a sum of Rs 75 lakh to the British.
However, the attitude of such elements changed dramatically in 1947, when they felt that the then Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru was not only willing to allow Kashmiri leadership to exercise unbridled powers but had also made up his mind to sacrifice the Dogras and the land of the Dogras in order to keep Sheikh Abdullah in good humour. Sheikh Abdullah was a bitter critic of Maharaja Hari Singh (1925-1947), notwithstanding the fact that the Maharaja was a democratic of democrats, secularist of secularists and an able and impartial administrator. Sheikh was arrested a number of times during the rule of Hari Singh because the former had been indulging in anti-state activities and communalizing everything in Kashmir. However, Sheikh tendered an unconditional apology in 1947 and secured his release. Nehru was also a bitter critic of Hari Singh because the latter had got him arrested at Kohala in 1946. Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah were good friends and Hari Singh was their common enemy.
The fact is that it was a conspiracy hatched by Nehru that changed the attitude of Sheikh Abdullah who, instead of demanding abrogation of the Treaty of Amritsar, started establishing the Kashmiri stranglehold over the Dogras and their land. He, in collaboration with Nehru, succeeded not only in his anti-Dogra designs but also created an atmosphere that culminated in widening the politico-constitutional gulf between Kashmir and Delhi, thus creating a serious problem for the nation in the Valley.
Even the transfer of political power from the Dogras to the Kashmiri leadership in 1947 did not change its attitude towards the Dogra rulers and the Dogras. They continued to pour venom on and humiliating them. Even today we can see such elements in the persons of leaders like Syed Ali Shah Geelani (Tehrik-e-Hurriyat) and Kamal Mustafa (National Conference). The memory of what Sheikh Abdullah’s son, former Cabinet Minister and presently the party MLA, Mustafa Kamal, said about Hari Singh on the floor of the assembly in the last budget session is still linger in the minds of the Dogras. During the election in 2002, Omar Abdullah, too, had used harsh words against Hari Singh in Samba. This criticism had angered the Dogras and the result was that the National Conference suffered a massive defeat in the land of the Dogras.
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