While speaking in Calcutta (now Kolkata) on January 1, 1952, India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru stated that Jammu and Kashmir (J&K)’s accession to India was made possible because the leaders of the region, led by Sheikh Abdullah, were fascinated by the secular aspects of our struggle for independence and rejected Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s two-nation theory.
However, Nehru was constrained to say that the Jana Sangh, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Praja Parishad of Jammu used abusive language against Sheikh Abdullah and wanted the restoration of Hari Singh as maharaja of J&K.
He asserted in that speech: “You can see that there can be no greater vindication than this of our secular policies, our Constitution, that we have drawn the people of Kashmir towards us.”
“But just imagine,” he remarked with apprehension, “what would have happened in Kashmir if the Jana Sangh or any other communal party had been at the helm of affairs.”
Nehru’s apprehensions fructified by the BJP
Nehru’s far-sighted observation of Kashmir chillingly played out when in August 2019, the Jana Sangh’s successor, the BJP, was “at the helm of affairs” and its leader Narendra Modi, by virtue of being prime minister of India with a huge majority in the Lok Sabha, controlled the entire state apparatus and unilaterally downgraded J&K from a full-fledged state to a Union territory (UT) while also doing away with its special status.
As a result, the people of J&K suffered from a huge democratic deficit for no fault of their own and confronted several harsh measures, including prolonged Internet bans and a clampdown on electoral processes, without which they remained unrepresented at the highest level of their government.
Also Read | Ends Matter, Not the Means: Decoding SC’s Approval for Reading Down of Article 370
Nehru linked the Babri mosque issue with Kashmir in 1950
It is quite coincidental that on the intervening night of December 22-23, 1949, two idols – Lord Ram and Sita – were surreptitiously placed under the central dome of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Nehru expressed his anxiety in a letter to the chief minister of the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh) that this development could affect Kashmir.
In one letter he wrote on February 5, 1950, to G.B. Pant, Nehru categorically stated that the developments concerning the idols’ secret placement would spell serious consequences for the rest of the country and gravely impact the Kashmir issue.
It is worthwhile to reproduce Nehru’s exact words from that letter. He wrote, “I shall be glad if you will keep me informed of the Ayodhya situation. As you know, I attached great importance to it and to its repercussions on all-India affairs and more especially Kashmir.”
Those remarks by Nehru brought out his sensitivity in understanding, in 1950 itself, that the placement of those idols inside the Babri mosque would exacerbate communal problems so severely that the secular fabric of our country would be torn apart, and the democratic processes set in motion in J&K after it joined the Indian Union would be badly vitiated.
The fears expressed by Nehru about Jana Sangh’s unfavourable disposal towards J&K have been materialised by the Modi-led BJP regime. Apart from scrapping J&K’s special status in August 2019 and downgrading it to a UT, Modi laid the foundation brick for a Ram temple almost exactly a year later at the same place where the Babri mosque was illegally demolished, following the Supreme Court’s judgement permitting the temple’s construction.
Also Read | Ayodhya: Once There Was a Mosque
It is remarkable that the Supreme Court gave the land to those who demolished the Babri mosque for the construction of Ram temple in the same place where that mosque once stood.
The same apex court, in another remarkable turn of events, approved the abrogation of J&K’s special status and evaded adjudicating the issue of its reduction to a UT even as it upheld the UT status of Ladakh, one of J&K’s erstwhile constituent parts.
J&K’s status was downgraded to a UT by the Modi regime while President’s Rule was imposed – because the politically appointed governor dissolved the state assembly in November 2018. This raises the concern that what was done to J&K can be done to any other state.
This prospect is worrisome as far as federalism is concerned. The overwhelming sway of the Union government in tinkering with the statehood of a federal unit has grave implications for the unity and integrity of India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and J&K LG Manoj Sinha at an exhibition in Samba, Jammu and Kashmir on April 24, 2022. Photo: PIB
Democratic deficit in J&K
Since the assembly was dissolved in November 2018, elections have so far not been conducted in J&K. It has troubled all those who believed in our constitutional scheme of governance, at the centre of which is a federal framework and the people’s will.
While upholding the revocation of J&K’s special status under Article 370, even the Supreme Court ruled that elections to J&K’s legislative assembly should be completed before September 30, 2024.
Never in the history of the Republic of India has any Union government downgraded a state to a UT as was unilaterally done in the case of J&K, which has serious implications for its identity and democratic credentials as an organic component of India.
Also Read: Historically, UTs Become States. Now the Centre Is Reversing That Trend in J&K.
It is worthwhile to note that even at the time of J&K’s accession to the Indian Union in October 1947 in the face of an invasion by Pakistan-backed Pashtun tribesmen with the intention of making it a part of that country, Nehru never contemplated making it a UT and ensuring direct rule by the Union government.
So, it is rather shocking that those who vociferously claimed that the abrogation of J&K’s status would end all forms of terrorism there and bring it all-round progress have failed to restore its statehood even four years after it was downgraded to a UT, as well as to ensure elections and the large-scale participation of its people in its representative bodies.
Besides, even MPs and several others – be they journalists or civil society representatives – who took a critical stand against direct rule by the Union government were subjected to coercive measures, incarceration and prolonged harassment.
The long-drawn-out internet clampdown in the whole of J&K very gravely impaired the people’s rights and liberties to communicate. In fact, the Supreme Court has interpreted the right to access the internet as a fundamental right, and so in shutting it down, the regime there grossly infringed upon the people’s fundamental rights.
At the time of its accession to the Indian Union, the people of Kashmir never suffered in terms of the deprivation of their democratic rights, which were affirmed by establishing a representative government in place of its monarchy.
Now, the Supreme Court is telling the Union government to conduct elections for J&K’s state assembly. It represents a sorry state of affairs that Nehru apprehended J&K would be reduced to in case the Jana Sangh controlled the state’s affairs.
Rid India of the communal virus by learning from Kashmir
While making a statement in the constituent assembly (legislative) on March 5, 1948, Nehru categorically stated that the J&K issue is not an issue of communalism, and that the rest of India should learn from it the lessons of communal harmony.
Can India, currently embroiled in a majoritarian narrative, save itself from a communal imbroglio by defending the secular and composite ethos of Kashmir?
S.N. Sahu served as an officer on special duty to President K.R. Narayanan.
