Jammu: National Conference president and former three-time Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah said that accession of Jammu and Kashmir with Indian domain was essentially on three subjects—defense, communication and foreign affairs and that history has been distorted.
“The history has unfortunately been distorted and the version the young minds are being fed is far from facts,” Farooq, the member parliamentarian from Srinagar, said while addressing office bearers and prominent leaders of party’s Students Union at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhawan here.
He dwelt upon the circumstances leading to accession of Jammu and Kashmir with Indian domain, “essentially on three subjects—defense, communication and foreign affairs.
He referred to promises made by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in Parliament and the UN.
He said the people of the state are not asking anything beyond the promises made and National Conference is prepared to have positive discussions over autonomy.
“I had made it amply clear to Mr Arun Jaitley, when he was designated as representative of the NDA Government during Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee’s tenure to study the J&K Autonomy Report that either get convinced over the document or convince us as to what was wrong in the autonomy document that jeopradises the national interest”, Dr Farooq said in the backdrop of three subjects on which the accession was signed by Maharaja Hari Singh. He said the people of the state were not against the Maharaja but they had stood against the system across the country.
He said that Jammu and Kashmir had preferred to be part of secular India and not theocratic Pakistan, as the people believed that religion alone was not a binding force. This was proved beyond any doubt in the wake of the creation of Bangladesh, he added.
Farooq also accused the RSS of colluding with British during India’s great freedom struggle, supported Indira Gandhi during emergency and is now dividing the nation on communal lines.
“By promoting and playing communal politics, the RSS and its off-shoots including the BJP are hell bent to fragment India into bits and pieces,” he said.
He questioned the hyper-nationalistic posturing of the BJP, saying history stands testimony to the negative role the RSS played during the freedom movement when stalwarts were facing the wrath of British.
He questioned the role of the BJP in its earlier avatar of Jan Sangh and even before when its leaders aligned with British.
“The Sangh leaders played second fiddle to British and were against independence of India,” Farooq said, adding that they wanted Britishers to stay put in the country and intrigued against the towering freedom fighters.
He wondered over the ultra-nationalism being gloated now, unfortunately by polarizing the political atmosphere and dubbing adversaries as anti-nationals.
He referred to divisive politics of the BJP and decried the attempts of sowing seeds of hatred and mistrust among various communities for petty political gains. He said onus lies on youth of the country to sensitise the people against polarizing and communal politics of the BJP, RSS and its affiliated organizations. He said communal divide is against the idea of India and its ethos.
Farooq also took a jibe at BJP or Jan Sangh’s hypocrisy, saying the RSS top brass had supported the 1975 emergency imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
He advised youth to get abreast with the chequered history of the country and the state that will help them to analyse political developments in right perspective
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