Enduring 28 years of insurgency ,Kashmir is numbed to the state of never ending turmoil and violence.
Majority of peace loving Kashmiris are mere hapless spectators to the tragedies being inflicted by the terrorists .
Recently a statement of National Conference leader ,vice president of NCP ,Omar Farooq Abdullah while addressing election rally in Bandipora, stated in case of abrogation of Article 35A ,he would like to revert back to the position of PM and Sadar-e-Riyasat that J&K enjoyed way back in fiftees and early sixtees, caused ripples in the political corridors of the country.
Prime Minister Mr Modi reacted angrily at a rally ,tweeting as well “ National Conference wants two PMs 1 in Kashmir and 1 for the rest of India –Till Modi is there ,no one can divide India”.
Prime Minister of J&K
J&K had its own Prime Minister and Sadar-e-Riyasat till 1965. In 1965 when J& K constitution was amended ,(probably sixth J&K Constitution Amendment Act 1965) by then Congress government which replaced two positions with Chief Minister and the Governor. Mr G.M. Sadiq was first chief Minister and Mr Karan singh the Governor of J&K in 1965.
Sadr-e-Riyasat
The J&K Constitution was adopted on November 17 1957 .
On June 10 1952 the “ the basic principles Committee “ recommended that “the institution of hereditary rulership shall be terminated” and “the head of state shall be elective”. ON June 12 1952 the constituent assembly unanimously adopted the report. and resolved henceforth the head of state named Sadr-e-Riyasat would be elected by the legislative Assembly for a period of five years. and recognized by the President of India. However New Delhi on july 24 1952 agreed to allow J&K to recognise an elected Sadr-e – Riyasat instead of appointed Governor. once elected by the legislative Assembly,the Sadr- e- Riyasat had to be appointed by the President of India.
under the sixth amendment to the J&K constitution carried out in 1965 a fundamental change was made to its basic structure and as a result of amendment the Sadr-e-Riyasat was changed to Governor across the J&K constitution.
The Prime Minister of J&K after independence (October 1947 to March 1948) was Meher chand Mahajan. He was replaced by Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah ,who had been head of the administration .
When Abdullah was arrested on 9THAugust 1953 ,Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad was appointed the Prime Minister who ruled Kashmir till 1963 .
In 1953 , the author , being just eight years old was living temporarily in Anant Nag with my married sister and at the time of arrest of Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah sahib was incidently taking bath in the blue waters of Nag Bal Spring. The Purohit of the Nag Bal informed all to leave the premises immediately. In helter skelter I ran away barefeet leaving my wooden patten( footwear worn by kashmiris) behind.
Days after when calm was restored I collected the same wooden footwear lying undisturbed at the right spot.
Indian Provincial Prime Ministers
Not only Jammu & Kashmir but all Indian Provinces had a Prime Minister till 26th Jan 1950 when India was proclaimed as Republic of India. After that the nomenclature was changed to Chief Minister.
Since 1937,when Indian Govt was under British yoke each Province was headed by a Prime Minister.
The historic Government of India Act 1935 was passed in the British Parliament and had provided for the position of Provincial Prime Ministers.
British India was divided into 11 Provinces namely
Bombay ,Bengal, Madras, United Provinces ,Punjab, Central Provinces , Assam ,Northwest Frontier, Bihar ,Orissa, Sind .
In the provinces, there was to be full democracy in running of the day to day administrative matters.
The flaw of the unelected governor having a right to dismiss a popular government and take over the administration ironically still exists in modern India under the name “President’s Rule”.
So there were eleven Prime Ministers till the proclamation of Republic of India on 26th January 1950.
In August, 1947, however, as part of the transfer of power from British to Indian hands, India appointed Pt Jawahar lal Nehru as Ist Prime Minister of Independent India.
Conclusions
The years 2016 and 2017 saw great spurt in the fatalities of both soldiers as well as civilians.
The year 2018 witnessed bloodiest terror related violence. Kashmir situation is beyond riddance.
The rise in radicalisation in the valley is direct result of Delhi’s non engagement with the people of the valley thus losing the Midas touch to heal the relations on sound basis.
This is the ripe time to strengthen the hands of moderates in the valley , a grave mistake to ignore pro-dialogue separatists and thus push them into the lap of insurgents. All these retrograde steps could be detrimental to the ultimate peace.
Delhi needs to refurbish its image and policy of reconciliation towards Kashmir and bring some semblance to the dying spirit of the valley to silence the demand of restoration of J&K’s autonomy to its original state’s 1953 position . Since Kashmir is on the brink of extreme alienation and thus needs to be moored to the Indian banks permanently .
Thanks a this. This was a history lesson for me.
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Glad you liked it. The true history of kashmirhas been written to tell the new and old generation the historical sequence of things.
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The article reflects the true position of the prevailing conditions in Kashmir and as concluded, all problems need to be addressed to on priority by the Govt.
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yes that is what it is .
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“Majority of peace loving Kashmiris …… ”
Are you serious?
The more I read about Kashmir, more I become perplexed yet convinced that Nehru did a huge blunder and abrogation of article 370 and 35A is the possible solution.
Use heavy hand, if required. We have tried the dialogue process. It failed umpteen times. The dialogue time is utilised by the terrorists and separatists to recover, regroup and re-equip themselves to launch a fresh assault.
We are trying to solve a religious uprising by considering it a political one. We will fail for eternity. The sooner we learn, the better it is.
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YOU MAY BE RGHT IN YOUR ANALYSIS TO SOME EXTENT. Nehru wanted accession of kashmir which was muslim majority state ,he succeed in annexing Kashmir with India,rest is history.
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