'Nefarious': NC, PDP React to Removal of Sheikh Abdullah's Image from J&K Police Medal
New Delhi: The National Conference and other mainstream politicians in Jammu and Kashmir have spoken out against the removal of Sheikh Abdullah's picture from the Jammu and Kashmir Police medal, with the NC calling it "a nefarious attempt to erase history."
The NC has further said that the founder of the party, who has the epithet of 'Sher-i-Kashmir,' will continue to rule the hearts of people.
The Jammu and Kashmir government on May 23, announced that the image of former chief minister Sheikh Abdullah embossed on the J&K Police medals for gallantry and meritorious service will be replaced with the national emblem.
The government had earlier renamed the 'Sher-i-Kashmir' Police Medals 'Jammu and Kashmir Police Medals'.
An image circulating on Twitter showing what was the earlier medal (left) and the current medal, without Sheikh Abdullah's image.
"It is hereby ordered that in modification to the Para 4 of the Jammu & Kashmir Police Medal Scheme, the Sher-i-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah embossed on one side of the medal shall be replaced with the National Emblem of Government of India and the other side inscribed with the J&K State Emblem shall be inscribed as Jammu and Kashmir Police Medal for Gallantry' and Jammu and Kashmir Police Medal for Meritorious Service' in case of Gallantry/Meritorious Medal, as the case may be," said the latest order, signed by Financial Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary Raj Kumar Goyal.
Also read: Kashmir May Be the Latest Target of Centre's Name-Changing Spree
In another order issued on January 25, the General Administration Department had said the nomenclature of Sher-i-Kashmir Police Medals' has been changed to Jammu and Kashmir Police Medals'.
The January order came days after the government cancelled the holiday on the birth anniversary of Sheikh Abdullah.
The police medals were instituted in 2001 and are given on New Year, Republic Day and Independence Day in two categories: gallantry and merit.
In 2019, shortly after the Narendra Modi government read down Article 370 and scrapped J&K's special status, Kashmir’s water supply department was renamed the 'Jal Shakti department', the Chenani-Nashri Tunnel was named after Hindutva ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee and the Shere-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium was rechristened Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium.
'Name changing gimmicks'
"With due respect to the National Emblem, these attempts to erase our history, identity and icons show nefariousness of those running the show," NC state spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said in Srinagar.
Dar said replacing names will not change anything and the NC founder and former chief minister will continue to rule the hearts of the people of J-K.
"People of J&K have struggled on many fronts to be where they are now. They fought oppression, autocracy. No one can change that. Not by replacing/changing names. Sheikh Sb will continue to rule the hearts of people of J&K, no matter what they or their masters do," the spokesperson said.
As John F Kennedy said, “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without death.
Sher-e-Kashmir is not just a prefix that you can erase. Sher-e-Kashmir was, is and will always be the only Sher-e-Kashmir. #SheikhAbdullah pic.twitter.com/WDKn3cNZHb
— Tanvir Sadiq (@tanvirsadiq) May 24, 2022
Meanwhile, People's Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti said Abdullah was a tall personality and replacing his name will make no difference.
"It will make no difference to his personality, but I have doubts over the mental balance of the people who did this, because he is such a personality who has played an important role in J&K's history," Mehbooba told reporters.
"The former chief minister said Abdullah gave so many years of his life in serving the people of J-K, brought good laws and played a very important role in joining J&K with India...If they want to erase the identity of such a leader after 70 years, then what can we say to them other than that it is their mental bankruptcy. When the two-nation theory was being discussed, Sheikh sahib took such a bold decision to join India, a secular country, rather than Pakistan," she said.
CPI(M) leader M.Y. Tarigami said the BJP's panglossian view of rewriting history by changing names may favour their narrow communal agenda, but it cannot absolve its complicity from the annals.
"You cannot erase the contributions and historical significance of Sher-i-Kashmir by petty name changing gimmicks," Tarigami said.
Journalist Anuradha Bhasin observed that while Abdullah made "several blunders," his immense contribution to politics could not be erased from memory.
Sheikh Abdullah wasn't invincible. He made several blunders but his immense contribution to politics and society can't be ignored. Official erasures don't erase memories. They only reinforce the latter.
— Anuradha Bhasin (@AnuradhaBhasin_) May 24, 2022
(With PTI inputs)
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