Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, July 16: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said here that the partition of India in 1947 was a “miscarriage” of history, the ramifications of which are being felt till date.
Delivering keynote address as chief guest after releasing a book on Kashmir written by Raghuvendra Tanwar, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the tragedy of the Indian subcontinent has been that many of the decisions were taken not at the behest of the people, but at the motivation of a handful few. The partition of India, he said, had been detested by a majority of Indian population, including the Muslim community, and a forum of Muslim intellectuals and litterateurs by the name “Progressive Writers Association” had vehemently opposed it, but the haste and the greed to grab power by dividing the country into two took the toll of the public sentiment. The so called ‘two nation theory’, on the basis of which Pakistan was carved out, got defeated with the creation of Bangladesh, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh denounced the tendency on the part of the so called ‘Kashmir experts’ to quote history selectively and said, the time has come to undo this perversion of history. He reiterated that the history of Jammu & Kashmir and indeed that of the Indian subcontinent would have been different, if only the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had not committed the impropriety of intruding into the domain of his Home Minister Sardar Patel by keeping him out of the affairs of the State.
Time has come to change the narrative, said Dr Jitendra Singh, and to raise questions hitherto never asked in the last 70 years. One of these, he said, is under what rule Sheikh Abdullah kept Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee under illegal detention for 44 days without any charge-sheet or court trial, even though Mukherjee enjoyed certain privileges and protocol as an elected Member of Lok Sabha, former Union Minister and President of a National Political Party.
Accusing the Congress and National Conference (NC) of fooling the Kashmiri masses in the name of Article 370 and 35A, Dr Jitendra Singh said, these two Parties are themselves not sincere in their stand vis-a-vis these two Articles. He said, the NC and Congress accuse BJP of so-called erosion of Article 370, but all the provisions of the Indian constitution extended to the State of Jammu & Kashmir till date have been brought by the Congress and NC governments, the only difference being that they willingly adopted the provisions which were convenient to their political interests, but used the alibi of special status to keep away the provisions which were of public interest but not of their political interest.
The silver lining, Dr Jitendra Singh said, is the post-1990 generation which comprises nearly 70% of the population, even in the Kashmir Valley. These are aspirational youth who are no longer ready to be bluffed by the political tricks of the yester-years, he said.
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