YV Sharma
Mehbooba Mufti is at her acerbic best yet again!!
In one of her recent “X” (twitter) posts, after the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India (HSCI)upheld the constitutional validity of abrogation of Art 370/35A of the Indian constitution by the Parliament, she came up with a piece in her party’s newsletter called “speak up”. The piece is mischievously titled “From Citizens to Slaves.”
In this write up she eludes that “once again, Kashmir is grieving” after the judgement of the HSCI & quotes an Arab poet Ansar Yawar saying that “expecting a solution from those who created the web is like a bug asking the spider for its freedom, not realising the purpose of the web.”Unbecomingly, she has tried to use literary flourish that the HSCI is also a part of the web that has turned the people (of Kashmir) “From Citizens to Slaves”.
In fact, Mehbooba Mufti should be reminded to gratefully thank Maharaja Hari Singh who signed the Instrument of Accession with India in nick of time to prevent it from going into the clutch of Pakistan. If that wouldn’t have happened the condition of people like her & her ilk would either have been like that of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at the worst or that of Imran Khan at the best. Their fate could also have been like that of Fatima Jinnah, the sister of the Qaid-I-Azam, forgotten & vanquished, or probably that of Choudhry Rehmat Ali who though was the originator of the idea of Pakstan & Pakstan movement & also invented the name “Pakstan” in 1933 for the new nation of his dreams. (Alphabet “I” was added later to Pakstan to make it Pakistan).
Rehmat Ali wanted to live in Pakistan after its creation, but was expelled by Liyaqat Ali Khan in 1948, by the then PM of Pakistan. Rehmat Ali died in England completely disillusioned, destitute, forlorn & lonely. Fate of Liyaqat Ali Khan was sealed by a gunman in 1951.
There is a fair chance, Mehbooba & her ilk should remember, that they could also have ended up like Mir Laiq Ali, the Prime Minister of the Nawab of Hyderabad(in 1947) or Syed Qasim Rizvi, the head of the Razakars, had Maharaja Hari Singh not signed the Instrument of Accession. Mir Laiq Ali &Qasim Rizvi, the friends of Pakistan, lived a life of obscurity in their chosen country of Pakistan. Mehbooba Mufti should remember that Maharaja Hari Singh did her & her ilk a great favour when he chose India over the other choices he could have made as per the requirements of the Indian Independence Act. Had the Maharaja faltered Mehbooba would have known the difference between being a slave & a citizen!!
In fact, the fate of J&K was sealed with India immediately after the IOA was signed by Maharaja Hari Singh in 1947, but it was the web of intrigue & deception stitched together by Sheikh Abdullah &others & later strengthened by the Kashmiri political class &myopic, minority appeasing, infirm & weak Indian political dispensation that resulted in disillusionment amongst the gullible Kashmiri people at large. People of the rest of India too had to face the brunt because of several wars with Pakistan & continuing terrorism instigated, sponsored & perpetuated by some of the Kashmir politicians under the shroud of Article 370. While they prospered the poor people of the state faced the brunt of their machinations.
This web has now been cast aside by the judgement of the HSCI & the bluff of Mehbooba Mufti& her ilk has been called. It has taken 75 long years to cast this web aside. It has taken 75 years for this country to realise that this article of the constitution giving “special status” to J&K was, after all, temporary & transitory.
With the same literary flourish Mehbooba draws similarity between the present “government & occupation.” It is a travesty that while in power “she is the government”& while out of power she refers to the government as an “occupier.” What she will not mention is that the government of India spends 10% of its financial allocation on a population of 1% of the total Indian population in J&K while a state like UP with 13% population gets only 8% of the funds allocated. Is this “occupation” Mehbooba Mufti? If she wants to understand “occupation”, she must read about occupation of Poland & France by Nazi Germany. She somehow is not comfortable with flourishing Kashmir or equally flourishing Jammu. She would rather have loved Hartals & Bandhs. How can she digest schools & business establishments staying open in the valley 365 days a year? How can she digest that there are no “hajums” no end eulogising the dead terrorists? To her no stone pelting in the Valley for years must be looking like a political opportunity lost!!
This actually is her pain!
Her pain is also that the Indian government talks about POJK as India’s integral part. She remarks that “perhaps they (the Govt of India) regrets losing POK because they couldn’t treat it like the spoils of war”. What thought process is this? This is nothing but a civilisational disconnect.
Mehbooba must understand that the concept of “Spoils of war” is not an Indic construct.
Was J&K treated as a spoil of war after Indian army drove out the Pakistan raiders from the princely state of J&K in 1947/48 at a huge military & economic cost?! Had it been treated as such the Sheikhs & the like wouldn’t have been pampered to an extent by the then GoI that the “temporary article 370” became part of the Indian constitution. Thankfully, it was temporary – temporary for 75 long years!!
Coming to power sector about which Mehbooba has a perpetual complaint. She needs to explain as to what happened to Rs.25,000 crores that were expected to be collected from the “encroachers” of forest &government land (in lieu of transferring land to them) for constructing hydroelectric projects in J&K. Why was only Rs.78 crores realised against an envisaged amount of Rs. 25,000 crores since 2001 while so many Kashmir based governments came to power in J&K? Did these governments think that they will sow mischief & get electric power in its lieu. The present govt is constructing power houses on Chenab basin that shall have an installed capacity of 3000 MW which shall be equal to the capacity installed in last 75 years. That is the kind of investment being made in generation sector as also in distribution & transmission sector. Obviously, this will not be visible to Mehbooba Mufti.
Mehbooba should not cry over Lithium reserves discovered in Reasi District of Jammu region. Just to remind her, Jammu too has 10 districts & Reasi is a part of the Jammu region. She should remain assured that whatever happens in this area it shall be done transparently by the government & she need not incite the common citizens without any reason or rhyme.
Finally, Mehbooba would do better to look back through 75 years & see the havoc caused by policies of people like her in J&K & elsewhere. She would do better not to incite people on matters that are irrelevant & figment of her imagination & spoil the future of the new generation by propagating fallacies & propounding deceit.
(The writer is BJP Spokesman).
