Maharaja Hari
Singh was not a villain
(PROF HARI OM
)
Shekhar Kapur
repeatedly asserted that Sheikh Abdullah was an outstanding nationalist and
that he was not only vehemently opposed to the pernicious two-nation theory
that culminated in the communal partition of India in August 1947 but was also
bitterly opposed to the idea of Jammu & Kashmir becoming part of Pakistan.
It is clear that he based his assertions on the (mis)information supplied to
him by Mushir-ul-Hasan, M J Akbar and Qamar Ali.
It needs to be
underlined that Sheikh Abdullah wanted the State of Jammu & Kashmir to
become part of Pakistan
subject to the condition that the state will enjoy a very special status under
his complete control. Just before accession of the state to India, he had sent
two emissaries — Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad and Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq – to Lahore
to discuss the accession of Jammu & Kashmir to Pakistan with Mohammad Ali
Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan, notwithstanding the fact that princely states were
not part of the partition plan and that he had no locus standi in the matter.
The pleadings of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad and Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq failed to
evoke any positive response from Jinnah and Khan. In fact, they and their
leader Sheikh Abdullah were rebuffed by the Muslim Leaguers and the result was
that they returned to Kashmir empty handed.
Sheikh Abdullah turned to Jawaharlal Nehru only after his emissaries returned
to Srinagar.
The fact of the matter is that it was the “mortal fear of elimination” at the
hands Jinnah and Khan that made him look towards Nehru so that he could achieve
in India what he failed to
achieve in Pakistan.
It would be
interesting to know what Jinnah and Khan had said about Sheikh Abdullah. About
the Sheikh, Jinnah had contemptuously observed: “Oh! That tall man who sings
the Koran (Quran) and exploits the people” (read Kashmiri-speaking Sunnis).
Liaquat Ali Khan had, on the other hand, said: “This quisling (Sheikh Abdullah)
– an agent of the Congress (in this case Nehru) for many years — who struts
about the stage bartering the life, honour and freedom of the people for the
sake of personal profit and power”.
Sheikh Abdullah
achieved both profit and power through Nehru’s “generous and unchecked support”
by cleverly camouflaging his real motive. His real motive was independence from
India
and his objective was to establish “Switzerland-type Independent Kashmir”. This
became clear on October 27, 1947. On that day in Srinagar,
he said: “We have picked up the crown of Kashmir
from dust. The question of joining India
or Pakistan
can wait. We have to complete our independence first”. It may appear
preposterous and unbelievable, but it is a fact that Shekhar Kapur did not
refer to these historical facts even indirectly in his “Pradhanmantri”.
Instead, he presented Hasan and Akbar to the TV show-watchers so that they
could mislead the public opinion by saying that Sheikh Abdullah was secular and
Indian by heart and Maharaja Hari Singh was communal and pro-freedom.
And what
happened on October 26, 1947? Did Nehru accept the offer of accession of Jammu & Kashmir State
with India
the moment the offer was made to him or when did or at whose behest he accepted
the offer of accession? That day, Mehr Chand Mahajan, Prime Minister of Jammu
& Kashmir, went to Delhi
to meet Nehru and other central leaders to discuss the situation arising out of
the Pakistani aggression in the state and negotiate the state’s accession to
the Indian Dominion. Accompanying him was V P Menon, Secretary of the Ministry
of States to the Government of India. Mahajan carried with him the Instrument
of Accession document, which was duly signed by Maharaja Hari Singh. In the
course of the confabulations held between the two Prime Ministers, tempers ran
very high. The question under discussion was the Hari Singh’s request for an
immediate military help to defend the “all out invasion of Kashmir” started on
October 22, 1947 by Pakistan.
The aggression was aimed at grabbing Jammu & Kashmir or seeking its forced
accession to the Pakistan Dominion.
Mahajan
vigorously pleaded with Nehru that the Indian military help should be
immediately sent to the Valley, as Kashmir
could fall anytime before the Pakistani evil machinations. To the forceful
pleadings Nehru retorted, “India
is strong enough to retake it” (read Kashmir).
This casual and irresponsible reply obviously disappointed and dismayed Mahajan
and dumbfounded Home Minister Sardar Patel.
It would be
appropriate to quote verbatim what Mahajan wrote in his autobiography, Looking
Back, in this regard. He wrote thus: “I, therefore, firmly but respectfully
insisted on the acceptance of my request for immediate military aid. The Prime
Minister observed that it was not easy on the spur of the moment to send troops
as such an operation required considerable preparation and arrangement, and
troops could not be moved without due deliberation merely on my demand
(Mahajan’s) demand. I was, however, adamant in my submission; the Prime
Minister also was sticking to his own view. As a last resort I said, ‘give us
the military force we need. Take the accession and give whatever power you
desire to give the popular party (National Conference). The army must fly to
save Srinagar this evening or else I will go to Lahore and negotiate
terms with Mr. Jinnah’. When I told the Prime Minister of India that I had
orders to go to Pakistan in case immediate military aid was not given, he
naturally became upset and in an angry tone said, ‘Mahajan, go away’. I got up
and was about to leave the room when Sardar Patel detained me by saying in my
ear, ‘of course, Mahajan, you are not going to Pakistan’. Just then, a piece of
paper was passed over to the Prime Minister. He read it and in a loud voice
said, ‘Sheikh Sahib also says the same thing’. It appeared that Sheikh Abdullah
had been listening to all this talk while sitting in one of the bedrooms
adjoining the drawing room where we were”. The said piece of paper changed the
whole situation and the question which only a few minutes before had generated
intense heat got solved. Without further debate and argument, Nehru agreed to
help the state against Pakistan’s
unprovoked and illegal war. Thereafter, things moved very fast and the very
next morning Indian army landed in Srinagar.
Sadly, Shekhar
Kapur did not reveal these facts, including the fact that Nehru made Sheikh
Abdullah a party to an event he had nothing to do with. According to the Indian
Independence Act of 1947, Maharajas of the 560-odd princely states alone had
the power to take final decision on the political future of the princely
state(s). They had only two choices: Indian Dominion and Pakistan Dominion.
They had no third option: Independence.
Besides, the Indian Independence Act nowhere directly or indirectly talked
about the right to self-determination or plebiscite to ascertain the people’s
view whether they wanted to become part of Indian Dominion or Pakistan
Dominion.
However, Shekhar
Kapur did hold the nominated Governor-General of Independent India Lord
Mountbatten and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru responsible for complicating
things in Jammu & Kashmir by saying that it would be for the people of
Jammu & Kashmir to ratify or not to ratify the decision on the accession of
the state. Mountbatten, who had no plenipotentiary powers, had on November 1,
1949 on his own committed a plebiscite to Jinnah in Lahore,
an offer rejected outright by Pakistan
Governor-General. Nehru also held out a similar commitment a day later.
Earlier, Mountbatten had visited the state to tell Maharaja Hari Singh that if
he wished to accede his state to Pakistan,
India
will not raise any objection.
Shekhar Kapur
would do well to look all these facts in the face and make changes in his show
accordingly. Besides, he needs to inform the nation that Jammu & Kashmir is
in India
only because of Maharaja Hari Singh. Hari Singh was not for independence. He
was for the state’s complete merger with India and that was the reason Nehru
looked down upon the Maharaja of Jammu & Kashmir.
No comments:
Post a Comment