In “ZarbeKaleen” Iqbal has drawn up a discourse between Yazdan (God) and Iblis (Lucifer). The latter says to God that probably God Himself did not want him to prostrate and perform the sajdah before Him, otherwise, says the Satan, it was not possible for him to claim greatness in His presence, Yazdan asks:
Kub khula tujh per yeg raaz? Inkar say pahlay kih baad (When did you come to know the truth of this secret, before your refusal to make sajdah or after it?).
G.M. Shah, who came to power in Kashmir with the connivance and active support of the Indian Congress regime, has come out with a smashing and slashing statement against the Congress regime ‘machinations against the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
‘One might ask the same question from gulshah, in the words of Iqbal, with a mall alteration:
“Kub khola tujh per yeh raaz, “ikhraj” say parlay kin baad?” (When did you realize this secret, after your ouster or before it?)
DISCLOSUR
In a meeting of his party workers at Srinagar, Shah has, however, made startling disclosures about the aims and objects of the Congress I in particular and the Indian Government in general. He has said that:
- Only two months after his appointment as Chief Minister in July 84, he had come to know that ‘he was going to be ousted if he did not support the policies of the Indian Government. These were the days when the late Mrs. Indira Gandhi was still alive. Thus the policies were her policies. Shah was asked to merge his party into the Kashmir branch of the Indian National Congress, which he refused to do.
No doubt National Conference of Jammu and Kashmir, ever since it was formed by Sheikh Abdullah in the late thirties son the dead body of the Muslim Conference, dittoed the policies of Congress, but it has in some way or the other, Kept alive the entity of Kashmir. It is a regional party, with a certain background, For instance, different regimes under it have not, during the past thirty eight years, given*the right of Kashmiri citizen ship to those non-Muslim refugees who went from Pakistani Punjab to Jammu and Kashmir. Indian Government has all along pressurized the Kashmir regime in this respect but the National conference regimes have resisted these attempts. The position is that these non-Muslims are Citizens of India but not of Kashmir. They can cast their votes in the Lok Sabha elections but not in the elections to the Occupied Kashmir Assembly.
CONSTITUTION
Kashmir is the only state in India which has separate constitution of its own, in addition to the Indian Constitution. It has also a separate flag and up to the rule of Bakhshi Ghulam Muhammad, had its own “national” anthem, When Hindu extremist desire, they raise the slogan of “Ek jhanda, ek vidhaan, ek pradhaan” (One flag, one constitution and one President of the Republic).
Existence of the separate entity of the National Conference, and along with it the separate constitution of Kashmir and the article 370 of the Indian constitution, which ‘guarantees some autonomy to Kashmir within Indian framework, has all along been an eyesore for the Indian rulers.
National Conference is not subject to the discipline of the Indian ‘National Congress, whatever the Nehru, who, along with Dr. Ambcedkar, arlal Kashmiri to ay be.
- “The second point which, according to Shah, the Indian Congress regime has been stressing was that the article 370 of the Indian Constitution should be abrogated. This article has been a stone in the ‘stomach of Indian all these years.
As far back as 1962, in a letter Pandit Prem Nath Bazaz, a noted patriot and writer, Pandit Jawah arlal Nehru, who, along with Dr. Ambedkar, was the coauthor of the Indian Constitution, wrote that much of the substance of the article 370 of the Indian constitution, had got eroded and a day would ‘come when the article would remain there only in name.
The article was included in the Indian constitution on the plea of Sheikh Abdullah, who wanted to censure the Kashmiris, who always wanted to be away from India, that their state was enjoying autonomy in India unlike any other state of India. Poor Sheikh Abdulah was of course disillusioned when despite the so called autonomy, he was dismissed from the prime minister ship of Kashmir and clamped into prison, in 1953, Syed Mir Qasim, another for Mr. Chief Minister, reveals in his autobiography that the order of removal of Sheikh Abdullah had been drafted and got typed out in New Delhi by Pandit Nehru himself,
G.M. Shah has said that in addition to these political steps which also included an offer to make Congress party leader IftiKhar Ansari the Chief Minister, the Hindu rulers expected him to under take some steps which he was oath to take as a Sunni Muslim. When the Indian Deputy President, a Hindu, went to Jammu to the pilgrimages of the shrine of Shri Vashnav Devi, Shah was expected to apply a tilak on his forehead like Hindus, Shah say she declined to do so. Then he was ‘expected to set fire to the wooden image of Ravana, the king of Srilanka, who was humiliated by Ra ma, the Avatar of the Hindus, on Dussehra festival. Shah has said that Farooq Abdullah had done both these thing but he considered these things as against Shariat for a
Muslim.
ATROCITIE
It is interesting to note that not only Dr. Farooq Abdullah, but also his father Sheikh Abdullah, used to go the temples and apply “tilake” to their foreheads to assure the Hindus that they were “secularists”, Shah says that he never liked this and never did such things to please the Hindus.
Shah has also talked of the atrocities on the Muslims of India and has also said that he is thinking of forming a Muslims League in Kashmir to ensure the safeguard of the rights of the Muslims of Kashmir. He has also alleged that anti Hindu demonstrations and actions were engineered by the Congress party in Kashmir in order that his regime may be brought into and contempt in India.
It is also to be noted that G.M. ‘Shah was the general secretary of the anti-India Plebiscite Front of over two decades. Abdullah and collaborated with each other to destroy the Front for the loaves fishes of power.
It is this opportunism of Sheil Abdullah, his sons and daughter, his son in law, his wife and all other party men, which has all along ruined the Muslims of Jai muand Kashmir. When the pol Cal power offered to them, they wag their tails before the Indian rulers, when they are deprived of it; they become patriots and champions of the cause the Muslims of Kashmir overnight. This they have been doing for more than four decades.
In Occupied Kashmir therefore a new leadership is emerging. The Muslims of Kashmir fully understand how opportunistic their leaders are. This is why slogans are raised against the misleaders of Kashmir now.
On more occasion than one, people of Kashmir, led by zealous young men, fired with Islamic zeal and zest, have acted at their own, when their leaders were in hiding or just avoiding a confrontation.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 2, 1986
