It¡¯s sedition, Mr. Abdullah!

[Guest guest]

It¡¯s sedition, Mr. Abdullah!

 

"challenged the Indian Government in a meeting in Bombay

claiming that he will bring money from Arab countries for

the development of his State,(Kashmir)."

 

 

"It is always rumoured in the Valley that Abdullah family

has its masters in America."

 

By Ram Madhav (The writer is Joint Spokesman of the RSS)

 

Remember that octogenarian Chief Minister of a Marxist-led

State who declared that if the ¡®communal¡¯ BJP comes to

power at the Centre his State would secede from India? Here

is his twin brother in Srinagar.

 

This twin brother cherishes grand designs, designs of an

Independent Kashmir of which he would be the uncrowned king.

He is ready with the description of that ¡°greater Kashmir

(which) will form a country of its own¡±. In his own words

¡°the region comprising Kashmir Valley, Doda, Poonch,

Rajouri and parts of Udhampur district would form a country

of its own.¡±

 

¡°I look forward to a future in which Srinagar will be the

headquarters of the SAARC¡±, he exhorts.

 

No. I am not talking about the leader of Hurriyat

Conference, nor the ¡®Commander¡¯ of one of those

innumerable terrorist outfits that are being bred and

nurtured in the Valley. I am quoting none other than the

flamboyant Chief Minister of that State Farooq Abdullah.

This was what the ToI reported him of having said to its

correspondent Mr. V.J. Thomas, published in its August 30,

2002 issue.

 

In any other country such statements would attract a

punishment for sedition. But in India they don¡¯t. That is

why these people getaway with impunity despite making such

outrageous statements. It may serve Abdullah¡¯s political

interests in the Valley. But what will happen to Kashmir?

 

Farooq made these remarks ostensibly in response to the

trifurcation demand of the Sangh Parivar. The merits or

otherwise of trifurcation demand apart, the central question

is whether a Chief Minister of an Indian State can indulge

in such subversive language, whatever may be the provocation.

 

The fact of the matter is the trifurcation demand is just an

excuse for Abdullah. This is not the first time that he

indulged in such blatantly anti-national utterances. Every

time he sees a challenge to his thrown, Abdullah would

resort to such separatist cacophony. When Jag Mohan was

appointed as the Governor of the State second time in 1990,

Farooq was thoroughly rattled. He had resigned in a huff.

And the same Times of India had reported his ignoble

outbursts on February 7, 1991. He was alleged to have said

that he had instructed his party men to lie low, ¡°cross the

border and receive arms training¡±. What ever is the

meaning of ¡®crossing the border¡¯ and ¡®receiving arms

training¡¯ is anybody¡¯s guess.

 

A year before, in an interview to a Urdu paper in the

Valley, Farooq was reported to have said ¡°as a killer and

in the garb of Chengez Khan, the Governor was dead set to

turn the Valley of Kashmir into a big graveyard. ¡¦¡¦.. it

is difficult to say how many hundreds of people have been

killed by the army and the paramilitary forces. At a time

when citizens of Kashmir see with their own eyes how their

dear ¡®nation¡¯ (emphasis added) is turning into a huge

graveyard, I wish to appeal to my people and the entire

world that they should enquire into the shameful steps.¡±

 

There is no dearth of people who believe that Farooq is a

nationalist to the core. In fact a senior police official

working in the Valley had commented to this writer that if

there was any nationalist in the Valley upon whom the

Government of India can rely, it was Farooq.

 

Farooq is a glib actor. He can betray emotions that convince

people about his utterences. But scratch him, you will not

find a nationalist. Instead you will find his father, late

Sheik Abdullah, in every tissue of his blood. The Sheik had

laid the foundation for Independent Kashmir. Farooq followed

in his footsteps.

 

You will find Farooq standing in the Assembly precincts,

tears rolling down his cheeks, thundering against the

atrocities of Pakistan in his land. He will mesmerize you

with his intense anti-Pakistan rhetoric. But watch his words

carefully; one would hardly see anything pro-India in it.

When it comes to talking about India, it will always be

¡®you¡¯ and ¡®we¡¯ only. ¡°Our people are dying here. What

are you doing sitting in Delhi?¡± he would question the

rulers. ¡°Why are you keeping quite, why not go and attack

Pakistanis?¡±, he would taunt them. ¡°Pradhan mantri ko to

ghutne nahin hai (the Prime Minister doesn¡¯t have his

knees)¡±, he would ridicule publicly.

 

That Farooq, like his father, is unreliable is a fact known

to every politician in the country. Parties and leaders are

aware of his intentions and machinations. Even Rajiv Gandhi

had dubbed Farooq Abdullah a pro-Pakistani and a security

threat for the country.

 

It is well known, was even recorded in his biographies and

never repudiated, that Farooq was cozy with leaders of PoK

like JKLF chief Amanullah Khan etc and had publicly declared

his commitment to the cause of independent Kashmir. Farooq

visited PoK in 1974. He had attended a JKLF convention at

Mirpur. Azam Inquilabi, a militant who was present in that

convention, would claim later (in 1989) that at this

convention Farooq Abdullah (he describes Farooq as ¡®our

former senior colleague¡¯, whatever it may mean in the

militant language) ¡°had taken a vow to be morally committed

to working for establishing an independent Kashmir¡±.

 

Farooq ¡°must be feeling very uneasy for having broken the

promise which he had made before a large gathering and in

the presence of stalwarts like the late Maqbool Butt and

Amanullah Khan¡±, groans Inquilabi.

 

Farooq was coroneted as the Chief Minister in early 1982.

Akali sponsored separatist movement was at its peak at that

time. Farooq lost no time in trying to befriend Khalistani

separatists. He specially visited the Golden Temple in

Amritsar, the hotbed of Khalistani terrorism and held secret

parlays with the Khalistani militant leader Bhindranwale.

After his return to the State he started talking about Sikh-

Muslim unity, fight against Indian Government etc. A large

procession was taken out from the Lal Chowk Gurudwara in

which slogans about Muslim-Sikh unity were raised. The

processionists, most of them Muslims, attacked Hanuman

Temple across the old Amirakadal Bridge and destroyed it.

They also ransacked the Nirankari Bhavan in the area. Such

incidents of violence on Pundits and their religion have

become a commonplace in the Valley under Farooq.

 

Buoyed by the newly found friendship with Bhindranwale and

other extremist Khalistani elements Farooq also started

using secessionist language more fluently and virulently.

Addressing Citizens¡¯ Advisory Committee Meeting in Srinagar

he declared that J&K would not continue as a part of India

if additional funds were not sanctioned to it. He challenged

the Indian Government in a meeting in Bombay claiming that

he will bring money from Arab countries for the development

of his State.

 

For him Jammu and Ladakh were always alien, a thorn in the

flesh. The simple reason is that they are Hindu and Buddhist

majority areas respectively. His priority is the Valley, his

dreamland of the Independent Kashmir. There is hardly any

place for non-Muslims in his dreamland. Even Sheik Abdullah

also used to see the Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists in his

State as the greatest impediment in the realization of his

dream of Independent Kashmir. It is a known fact that both

the national parties, Congress and BJP, have their base in

the Hindu-Buddhist areas primarily. It is another reason for

the Abdullah clan to hate them. Sheik Abdullah, in his

autobiography Aatish-e-chinar, had described the Kashmiri

Hindus as the agents of Indian intelligence.

 

Farooq went one step further when declared his homeland

formula to ToI excluding all the Hindu areas, viz. Jammu,

Kathua and Udhampur. Noted columnist Kuldip Nayar had

narrated an incident of 1983. It was election time in J&K.

Due to the resentment among the Hindus of Jammu over the

passage of the controversial Resettlement Bill, Congress

started gaining wide support in that region. Nayar bumped

into Farooq in the Jammu airport during the campaign time

and told him that Jammu appeared to him to be totally pro-

Congress. The immediate response of Farooq was that he wasn¡¯

t bothered about Jammu and if it rejected him in the polls

he would seeks its separation from the State.

 

Farooq¡¯s friendship with successive Pakistani Governments

is also not a secret. Since the days when Sheik was alive he

used to frequent Pakistan. In fact Zia-ul-Haq had offered

Farooq entry into Pakistan without Visa. It was the threat

by the Indian Government, that had Farooq accepted Zia¡¯s

offer he would be considered persona-non-grata and not

permitted to return to India, that stalled this preposterous

proposal.

 

It is in the last two decades, under the regime of Farooq

Abdullah, that secessionism has scaled new heights in the

Valley. He joined hands with pro-Pak forces like Moulvi

Farooq and gave them a fresh lease of life. Several

secessionist outfits sprouted in the Valley and competed to

win the support of Farooq¡¯s Government. A classic example

is the treatment meted out to the Indian players in 1983,

during the cricket match held in Srinagar between India and

West Indies. Even the West Indies were aghast at the way

humiliations were heaped on the Indian players by the anti-

India sloganeering youths right in the presence of Farooq

Abdullah and his posse of policemen. Even Indira Gandhi had

to bear with the insult of being greeted by nude male

spectators in a rally she went to address in Srinagar city.

 

It is always rumoured in the Valley that Abdullah family has

its masters in America. One is not surprised at this rumour

as one witnesses the developments in the Valley.

 

The mute question is, how come we are tolerating such people

and yet grieving about the deteriorating conditions in the

Valley?

 

 

(The writer is Joint Spokesman of the RSS)