New J&K Govt likely to revisit several ‘hurtful’ moves of the L-G administration
Srinagar:�Jammu and Kashmir is expected to have a new government in place by early next week, ending the six-year-old direct rule of the Centre in the Union Territory. One of the steps the new dispensation may take is to revisit the list of the official holidays under the Negotiable Instruments Act, of 1881.
The sources in the National Conference (NC) said that the new government will restore the holidays on July 13 and December 5 to mark the Kashmir Martyrs’ Day and the birth anniversary of the legendary Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, respectively.
Following the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state of J&K in August 2019, the Lieutenant Governor-led administration canceled both these state holidays. The move, however, came under severe criticism by various regional political parties including the NC and People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Particularly the government’s withdrawal of July 13 as a state holiday to mark the ‘martyrs’ day’ came as a big disappointment to vast sections of Muslims of J&K. Many people termed it as an “onslaught” on their ethos and a “deliberate attempt” to “hurt” their sentiments. On July 13, 1931, as many as 22 Kashmiri Muslims were killed in firing by the Maharaja's army outside Srinagar’s central prison where an in-camera trial of Abdul Qadeer Khan, a non-local chef with a British traveler accused of treason, was being held. July 13 is observed as ‘Martyrs’ Day’ on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC).
The Lt. Governor-led administration, however, declared October 26, the day J&K’s autocratic Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession with the Indian Union in 1947, as an official holiday. Later while conceding the demand of various political and social organizations of the Jammu region, it also announced September 23 as a state holiday to mark the birth anniversary of the last Dogra Maharaja.
Both these state holidays are likely to be retained in the J&K’s official holidays’ calendar under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, apparently not to hurt the sentiments of the people of the Dogra heartland which sent as many as 29 members to the J&K assembly in the just concluded elections. Politically too, it would be unwise on the part of the NC-Congress government to fiddle with the matters the Jammuites are emotionally attached with.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had while campaigning in J&K also renewed his party’s pledge to restore ‘Darbar Move’, the bi-annual shifting of the government between Srinagar and Jammu, known as the summer and winter capitals of J&K, respectively till the Lt. Governor-led administration discarded the practice a few years ago on the plea that apart from other difficulties it devours millions of rupees from the state exchequer every year.
The practice of ‘Dubar Move’ was started by visionary Dogra Maharaja Ranbir Singh for strategic and climatic reasons but it has also acted as a bridge between the dissimilar ethnicities of the twin regions over the past nearly 150 years. Besides, it gives a boost to Jammu’s businesses as the government employees and other workforce shift to the City from the Kashmir Valley along with their families for the winter months to escape the harsh winter back home.
The new government is also likely to revisit all other decisions of the Lt. Governor-led which were a part of a litigious campaign to erase the name of Kashmir’s legendary leader Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah from officials' buildings, events, and citations. It had in March 2020 dropped ‘Sher-i-Kashmir’ from Srinagar’s impressive International Convention Centre. The multi-facilitated conference centre on the banks of Dal Lake was subsequently mentioned in many official statements as ‘Kashmir International Conference Centre Complex’ instead of ‘Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC)’. However, the move was resisted by the NC and some other groups.
The Sheikh, who had opted for India after rejecting Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s two-nation theory by ratifying the instrument of accession signed by Maharaja Hari Singh in 1947, is known to his supporters also as ‘Sher-i-Kashmir’-Urdu for the ‘Lion of Kashmir’.
Also, the J&K government had on the eve of Republic Day that year announced a change in the nomenclature of the police medal for gallantry and police medal for meritorious service, removing the word ‘Sher-i-Kashmir’' from these.
The NC, reacting to erasing its late leader’s name from government buildings and important events and citations, had alleged that the J&K administration was at the behest of the present ruling dispensation in Delhi trying to distort history. “This also depicts the mindset of those in power in Delhi who are out to bruise whatever is dear to the people of J&K and whatever is important in history,” it alleged. The party had also accused the BJP government of taking its “vendetta to a higher level” and by doing so also “distorting history”.
The Sheikh’s eldest daughter Begum Khalida Shah had termed the change in the nomenclature of Sher-i-Kashmir police medals and cancelling the official holiday on his birth anniversary as “a calibrated effort to trim every single symbol of J&K's political individuality” and said it was “very hurtful.”
