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Jammu And Kashmir In Search Of Sincere Leadership

By Masood Ali Mir

11 February, 2015
Countercurrents.org

The politics of Jammu and Kashmir has always been controversial with regard to the ethics and morals of political sincerity. The history of Kashmir politics is full of manipulations, deceits, dishonesty and broken promises. The people of Kashmir are only in history of revolution who guided their leaders instead of being guided by them. They sacrificed a lot against their dynastic rulers and created the leadership with this view that the poor and innocent masses may have a good guidance in future course of action.

In the initial stage of freedom struggle against the Dogra rule, the religion used to be the guiding force to have a co-operation among the Muslim majority masses of Kashmir for the political cause and the religious leaders worked as the guiding stars in this way. It was because of this Jammu and Kashmir got the first political party in 1932 under the aegis of Muslim Conference under the charismatic leadership of Molvi Mohammad Yousuf Shah.

The Muslim Conference lightened the cherished hope among the exploited Muslim masses of the state for the political emancipation. Muslim Conference was there to help the people not only in the socio-economic and political field but also in moral and religious aspects as well.

But once the other sections of society felt the growing importance of Muslim Conference they demanded their inclusion in the process so that to be relevant in the state and its future politics. It was under this grab of secularisation of politics the Muslim Conference was transformed into the National Conference on 12th June 1938 (Some scholars are of the view that it was Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s political opportunism and political dishonesty by which he became the top leader of National Conference, till then he used to be among equals at number two leaders after the Molvi Yousf in the Muslim Conference)

From 1938, it was Sheikh Abdullah who dominated the politics of Kashmir and become the most popular leader of Jammu and Kashmir. It was his sheer popularity and sometimes the arrogance which led the emergence of self-created slogan “Alle Karre Waggan Karre -Bab Karre Lollo”.

When Sheikh became the top most leader of Kashmir in the early 1940s, Sheikh against the majority view preferred his own way and led people by the hollow slogan of Indian secularism against the Two-Nation Theory of Mohammad Ali Jinnah (The only Muslim leader of south Asia who served his community practically in the political field by creating a separate land for them in a Hindu dominated British India in spite of tremendous opposition from the Congress led by Gandhi and Nehru). Sheikh succeeded in the fulfillment of Gandhi’s and Nehru’s mission when he acceded Kashmir with India in total rejection of Independence Plan.

When Sheikh was high in his moral as the Prime Minister of Kashmir he (Sheikh) himself got the same treatment (Political dishonesty) from his most confident man Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad on August 9th, 1953 and People’s Bob was put behind bars on those charges which never proved on the behest of those who used to be the most dear friend (Jawaharlal Nehru). It was central Government which planned the whole episode to get rid of Sheikh’s arrogance.

Bakhshi used the developmental card to get the legitimacy and mass favour for his actions. Under Bakshi, the centre damaged the special status of Kashmir and used the economic gains for this. Shamsudin, Sadiq and Qasim through their way served their individual interests by their Machiavellian ways and helped the centre in its ill designs of more and more integration of Kashmir with India.

Then the 1975 Indira- Abdullah Accord by which Sheikh discarded his all previous political actions and declared them sheer vulgarism (Rajshumari Aik Be Maine Nahra Tha). It was Sheikh’s this action which changed the whole political scenario of Jammu and Kashmir and the stature of Sheikh turned a villain from that of a hero. It is considered the most negative act of the Sheikh’s whole life hence Sheikh’s dishonesty to the common masses. It is this action of Sheikh for which National Conference paid a lot in terms of loss it suffered.

Likewise one more deceit is in making when the green and saffron will have a coalition government. It too is architecture on same economic and developmental plank. When people of India have started to reject the BJP on its communal outlook and when the party has failed to achieve the utopian economic prosperity, the PDP is going to have it as a coalition partner in a Muslim majority state. It was green that was seen the representative of the Kashmiri sentiment in the post 1975 accord but if it too is going the same way like Sheikh, Bakhsi and Sadiq did then it will be hard for common Kashmiris to believe in any one in future for the promotion and protection of their separate identity within the Indian diversity.

Hence people in Jammu and Kashmir are yet to see a sincere political leader who would serve this piece of land mostly known as the paradise on earth. The land has never been served by anyone except the saints most importantly Sheikh of Sheikh’s Sheikh-ul-Alam and Lal Ded, who by their pure actions created a sense of common brotherhood, a sense of belonging and a sense to serve the needy by the concept of Kashmiriyat others be it political leadership or the social workers always played the role of impure selfish politics and deconstructed the much cherished Kashmiriyat.

(Masood Ali Mir is a freelancer and can be mailed at [email protected])





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