{"id":1463,"date":"2013-05-27T18:36:18","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T13:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=1463"},"modified":"2013-05-27T19:06:37","modified_gmt":"2013-05-27T13:36:37","slug":"why-i-rebutted-noorani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/why-i-rebutted-noorani\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Rebutted Noorani?"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Z.G. Muhammad<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sitting in the backroom of a shop on the fashionable Residency Road, a \u201cfriend\u201d of A.G. Noorani, complained that I and few other columnists were not \u2018just and fair\u2019 to author of book, \u2018The Kashmir Dispute-1947-2012\u2019. Taking an exception to my column in response\u00a0 to the speech of the octogenarian lawyer and writer at the inaugural function of the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Greater Kashmir he was of the view that instead of \u2018reacting to his speech\u2019, \u00a0I should have written about his book.<\/p>\n

\"jinnah-1\"<\/a>I saw a point in his grievance- the book for being a treasure of documents on the dispute undoubtedly deserves to be talked about in detail. The documents contained in the book are valuable and when these read in the context of changed geo-strategic scenario not only deconstruct the official versions of the story but also strengthens the larger \u2018Kashmir narrative.\u00a0 \u00a0Nevertheless, it needs to be understood that flawed and distorted version of history articulated from\u00a0 \u00a0important platforms go in the public memory as gospel truths unless rebutted with facts. Often, such speeches are meant to strengthen the \u201cdominant discourse\u201d and confound \u2018the people\u2019s narrative\u2019. \u00a0It will be hard\u00a0\u00a0 to say with absolute authority, if the well-known writer had some hideous intentions of strengthening\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cnarrative\u201d of a particular party in the state. \u00a0In his speech oscillating between presenting tinted versions of history of the Kashmir Dispute , subtly asking people of the state to reconcile with status quo and talking selectively about rigging \u00a0in Srinagar city and suggesting that elections in other parts the state were fair \u00a0one could not but believe that he was pursuing a particular agenda.<\/p>\n

In my past Monday column, out of three major points that he had raised in his speech, I had only written about his being historically on a wrong foot in squarely blaming Jinnah for non-resolution of the Kashmir dispute in 1947. \u00a0Two other important points raised by him i.e. how far Sheikh Abdullah contributed to \u2018Kashmir Tragedy\u2019 and his (Noorani) asking people to forget the demand for right to self-determination and UN resolution as Pakistan had also forgotten them due to limitations of space could not be put to the litmus test of history. Munshi Ghulam Hassan- witness to an era and having access to lot of archival material about the period \u00a0\u00a0in an article published in this newspaper on 19 May, nailed the lies of the author about Pakistan leaders denying meeting Abdullah\u2019s envoy \u00a0\u00a0Sadiq in Lahore.<\/p>\n

\"sheikh<\/a>I am amazed, what made the author to directly blame Jinnah when he himself writes in his book that Nehru\u2019s talking about plebiscite in Kashmir was just \u2018tactical\u2019 and Sheikh Abdullah was in know of this and rather he was a collaborator on this count.\u00a0 On 21 November 1947, he had written to Sheikh Abdullah, \u201cThere is no difference between you and us on this issue. It is all question of the best tactical approach. I would personally suggest to you not to say anything rejecting the idea of referendum but to lay stress on the fact the people of Kashmir, by their heroic \u00a0resistance, are\u00a0 deciding the issue themselves; also it is little absurd for people to carry on a Kashmir and, when defeated to \u00a0want a freedom.\u201d \u00a0\u201cWe known enough from published record to discern that moves were afoot to stage Kashmir accession to India in the guise of Stand Still Agreement\u201d, writes none but Noorani, \u201cEven if the raiders had not come Nehru would have pressed for accession.\u201d (p17 vol 1)<\/p>\n

As Noorani puts it, \u201cNehru had other plans. In private, he had adamantly set his face against a plebiscite in 1947. In public, till 1954, he continued to make the most explicit- almost extravagant- and solemn pledge to hold plebiscite.\u201d (p 39 Vol 1). For Nehru \u2018people\u2019 of Kashmir did not matter this he wrote to Sheikh Abdullah in 1952, \u2018accession is accomplished and nothing is going to unsettle it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Sheikh Abdullah until his death despite knowing how Nehru and his daughter looked at Kashmiris hoodwinked his own people by presenting the two as \u2018messiah\u2019 of Kashmiris and portrayed Jinnah as \u2018villainy\u2019. Nehru had given his mind through letters also. Mrs. Gandhi and her socialist father shared an understanding about people of Kashmir, \u201cthey had no feelings, no opinion, no soul- a view no different from collector in colonial times\u201d. \u2018They need salt and cheap food\u2019. They saw most important remedy for Kashmir problem in \u2018an influx of visitors in summer preferably from Bombay and Ahmadabad.\u201d ( p30 vol 1 ).<\/p>\n

Sheikh looked up at Nehru as his guide and philosopher but Nehru counted him as a cog that could be dispensed with at any time. The 1953, happenings as recapitulated by Noorani with more authentic information from untapped resources fully support this argument. None but Nehru dismissed sheikh. \u00a0Notwithstanding sympathies of author with Sheikh, he at times emerges in his book as an accomplice of Cornwall and at times as political novice who abjectly surrendered in 1975 without achieving anything.<\/p>\n

In advocating, the\u00a0 four-point formula of \u00a0\u00a0former Pakistan President, General Musharraf, as the only solution for the Kashmir dispute and<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a>

In picture : Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Abdullah<\/p><\/div>\n

suggesting to\u00a0 people \u00a0that they should forget UN resolutions- as Pakistan had dropped the demand of plebiscite for Kashmir was not only \u00a0on wrong foot but also \u00a0was demanding from \u00a0them betray their own cause. \u00a0A cause for which they have made huge sacrifices during past sixty-five years.\u00a0 \u00a0A lot has been written in this newspaper in the past as to how the formula \u00a0\u00a0which General Musharraf himself called \u201cpurely personal that needs refinement\u201d was only strengthening status quo. Like many other formulas like Dixon plan and Chenab formula this formula is also now of academic value. This is not true about \"buchpix22\"<\/a>the UN resolution on Kashmir \u2013 that promises plebiscite. \u201cYes, this promise is now sixty-three years old. But does its age diminish its relevance or reduce is applicability?\u00a0 as \u00a0says Amb. Yusuf Buch, \u201cTo assert so is to concede primacy to the law of the jungle. Promises may be forgotten, dishonorably or otherwise, by those who make them but they are never forgotten or lost sight of by those to whom or for whose benefit they are made. This is true as much of international relations as it is in daily life.\u201d
\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In his speech\u00a0 Abdul Gafoor Noorani sounded more of lobbying for some political party in the state than an independent political analyst when in a didactic tone he told a selected gathering in the salubrious environs of Nageen Club that Pakistan was not interested now in plebiscite in Kashmir. \u00a0While \u201cacknowledging that it is the advocacy by Pakistan that has established this cause on the international agenda,\u201d as Yusuf Buch rightly puts it \u201c the cause itself does not depend on that advocacy.\u00a0\u201c<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nZ.G. Muhammad
\n 
\nSitting in the backroom of a shop on the fashionable Residency Road, a \u201cfriend\u201d of A.G. Noorani, complained that I and few other columnists were not \u2018just and fair\u2019 to author of book, \u2018The Kashmir Dispute-1947-2012\u2019. Taking an exception to my column in response\u00a0 to the speech of the octogenarian lawyer and writer at the inaugural function of the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Greater Kashmir he was of the view that instead of \u2018reacting to his speech\u2019, \u00a0I should have written about his book.
\nI saw a point in his grievance- the book for being a treasure of documents on the dispute undoubtedly deserves to be talked about in detail. The documents contained in the book are valuable and when these read in the context of changed geo-strategic scenario not only deconstruct the official versions of the story but also strengthens the larger \u2018Kashmir narrative.\u00a0 \u00a0Nevertheless, it needs to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[158,155,45,159,157,24],"class_list":["post-1463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-take","tag-a-g-noorani","tag-jinnah","tag-kashmir-dispute","tag-m-yusuf-buch","tag-nehru","tag-z-g-muhammad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1463"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1465,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions\/1465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}