Arjun Ram Meghwal
The rich Indian history has profound stories and attached theirwith deep struggle of many larger than life personalities, whose contribution in making and shaping the Indian Society, as well as towards its corrections have indelible marks on heart and mind of citizenry. Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar was such a charismatic figure, whose farsighted approach and visions on social, economic and political matters have huge gravity and mean to our country. As the Nation is celebrating 130th Birth anniversary of this rarest of the rare gem, remembering his views today will be a humble tribute to him.
After independence, being the Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee he had a significant role in drafting the Constitution of India. He had a very meticulous approach towards making India a Just society and strengthening national integrity and sovereignty. His statesmanship characters can also be understood from his sympathetic approach towards the Buddhist and Hindus of Jammu and Kashmir and strong opposition with the views to the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru.
Despite the reluctance of Baba Saheb, Nehru advocated the idea for giving special status to J&K. To bring things into perspective, it is important to understand that as the “two-nation theory” of Jinnah became fructifying, J&K issue has roots from the very moment. Sardar Patel took the responsibility for unifying the Nation and accordingly he unified 545 princely states to the union of India. He was alienated from the unification of J&K because Nehru took a personal interest. In a letter to Maharaja Hari Singh of J&K, Nehru explains the unification acceptance formula because the majority population are Hindu and ruler was also Hindu King making it a valid deal whereas the J&K have more number of people belong to minority (Muslim) community and King is Hindu, which makes rest of the country’s unification formula unfit for the J&K. At this stage, Nehru had a prejudice that Hindu will join the Indian part and Muslims of J&K will oppose the idea of acceding to India. It is important to note here that the Muslim league lost the election to Congress in the Muslim Majority area of Khyber Pakthunkhwa and Punjab wherein league was propagating the formation of separate Pakistan state for Muslims. When these two Muslim majority regions can vote against the league for resisting to become a part of Pakistan, how can Muslims of J&K advocate for their integration with Pakistan? Had Nehru considered this, his prejudice would have stayed far away. Some historians have argued that at this point in time, Nehru had envisaged an opportunity to polish his image by becoming world leader through expressing his ill-willed approach of side-lining the Raja Hari Singh and bringing out the liberal image of holding Muslim of J&K together by the intervention of Sheik Abdullah. Sheik Abdullah invariably demanded return for this gesture with Prime Ministership of Jammu & Kashmir having special status i.e. Separate constitution and flag of J&K. This malafied approach has resulted badly for the future of the state.
Dr. BR Amedkar on several occasions highlighted the matter of Jammu and Kashmir to break the prejudice of Nehru and the congress but they never gave heed to the cause.
Nehru had the idea about the Ambedkar’s strong view about the opposition of special status to J&K, as the draft constitution had no sign for providing such special status to J&K. Prime Minister Nehru advised Mr. Shekh Abdullah to take responsibility to convince Dr. B.R. Ambedkar the then Law Minister and Chairman of the Constitution draft committee. He opposed such a move which leads to break the fabric of national unity and integrity and clearly turned down the idea of special status saying “You want India to defend Kashmir, feed its people, give Kashmiri’s equal rights all over India. But you want to deny India and Indians all rights in Kashmir. I am a Law Minister of India, I cannot be a party to such a betrayal of national interests.”
After the failed attempt of convincing Ambedkar, Nehru entrusted his close confident N Gopalaswami Ayyangar, Minister without Portfolio in interim Government with the responsibility to prepare draft and move necessary legislation related to the special status of J&K. With the consultation of constituent assembly members Sheikh Abdullah, Mirza Mohammed Afzal Beg, Maulana Mohammed Syed Masoodi and Moti Ram Baigra, Gopalaswamy Ayyenger came up with the Draft of Article 306 A, providing special status to J&K.
On 17th October 1949, Jawahar Lal Nehru was in USA & N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar was entrusted to pass the motion introduced for insertion of Article 306A in the constituent assembly. The motion was adopted on the same day after a brief discussion and later it was renumbered Article 370 at the revision stage. Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar’s unacceptance of this move was evident by the fact that he had even refused to attend the session that passed the motion.
During the statement made by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar explaining his resignation from cabinet to the House on 10th October 1951, He clearly expressed the dissatisfaction and criticized the foreign policy of Nehru, who had hurriedly taken the J&K matter to UNO. He went on to say that
“Every country in the world was our friend. Today, after four years, all our friends have deserted us. We have no friends left. We have alienated ourselves. We are pursuing a lonely furrow with no one even to second our resolutions in the U.N.O. When I think of our foreign policy, I am reminded of what Bismark and Bernard Shaw have said. Bismark has said that “politics is not a game of realizing the ideal. Politics is the game of the possible.” Bernard Shaw not very long ago said that good ideals are good but one must not forget that it is often dangerous to be too good. Our foreign policy is in complete opposition to these words of wisdom uttered by two of the world’s greatest men.”
He criticized foreign policy considering the colossal military expenditure at that stage. The Pakistan quarrel was part of foreign policy having Kashmir issue and condition of Hindu’s in East Bengal. He expressed his sympathy with the Hindus and Buddhists of J&K. He worryingly said, “What I am afraid of is that in the proposed plebiscite, which is to be an overall plebiscite, the Hindus and Buddhists of Kashmir are likely to be dragged into Pakistan against their wishes and we may have to face the same problems as we are facing today in East Bengal.”
With the apprehensions resulting from the Ambedkar’s thought, the Praja Parishad was also politically and socially mobilizing the peoples against the ill will of Nehru. It was the struggle of Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Master Tarachand that half of Punjab and Bengal continued to remain an integral part of India.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar indefatigably opposed the idea for the special status provision of J&K at the planning stage itself. In his opinion, there will be the creation of another sovereignty in sovereign India, which can be detrimental to the unity and integrity of the Indian Republic. Few Historians have quoted that Nehru’s approach of Partial unification with J&K through the interventions of Sheikh Abdulla was not much appealing to the people of the region. As the people were feeling alienated from the mainstream, it was an insult of people in the opinion of BR Ambedkar. Implementation of Article 370 leads to the creation of the separate flag, a separate constitution for J&K, which brought the feeling of separatism, self-rule, autonomy, regional autonomy for misleading the youths and ultimately gave birth to terrorism, corruption and misgovernance in the state for a long time.
In August 2019, the Modi Government took bold decision to correct the historical incorrect by scraping article 370 which provides the special status to Jammu & Kashmir. Now the people of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir are experiencing the new dawn of vision-oriented development. It has paved the way for the implementation of 9 constitutional amendments and 106 other laws in J&K. The implementation of pupil welfare-related legislations like Right to Education, Anti-corruption related whistleblower protection act, The National Commission for Safai Karamcharis and ensuring the political reservation for the scheduled caste and scheduled Tribe among others, will ensure better life and opportunities for people. This single step has built a sense of upliftment among the poor and downtrodden, SCs-STs, women and youths to lead a life of fulfillment as envisioned by the Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.
As the nation pays tribute on the 1st Birth anniversary of Baba Saheb Dr. Ambedkar after the historical decision to unify & strengthen the sovereignty of India by scrapping article 370, let us pay homage by remembering his noble thoughts attached to this cause.
(The author is Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Heavy Industries & Public Entreprises and Member of Parliament, Bikaner)
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