{"id":1609,"date":"2013-10-02T10:05:54","date_gmt":"2013-10-02T04:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=1609"},"modified":"2013-10-02T10:06:52","modified_gmt":"2013-10-02T04:36:52","slug":"spilling-the-beans-analysis-with-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/spilling-the-beans-analysis-with-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Spilling The Beans: Analysis with Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>

 <\/p>\n

Z.G. MUHAMMAD<\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

It is like proverbial mosquito entering into snout of an elephant and the aftermath thereof. That is how best one can describe the controversy sparked after The Indian Express in its 20 September 2013 issue carried a report about findings of an army probe into \u2018misusing\u2019 of funds by former Army Chief General V. K. Singh. In the long list of startling revelations, three directly concerned Jammu and Kashmir:\u00a0 One, Rs 19 million given to Ghulam Hassan Mir, presently Agriculture Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, to engineer a change of Government in Jammu and Kashmir. Two, Rs.24 million given to an NGO named “Jammu and Kashmir Humanitarian Service Organisation (JKHSO),” which was linked to “Yes Kashmir.\u201d and third buying off-air interception equipment, to conduct “unauthorized” covert operations. \u2019
\nShould I say that the report played a devil\u2019s advocate making the former chief to spill the beans? He said many things that otherwise under\u00a0 burden of the\u00a0 oath of office would remain embedded\u00a0 in hinterland of his mind and buried with him – perhaps\u00a0\u00a0 in his autobiography also he would not speak so frankly about the role of army in\u00a0 the state. Instead of assailing, the veracity of the report about ministers and NGOs in the state receiving money from the army he came up with candid details about money paid to most of ministers in the state and NGOs and tasks assigned to them by the army. Describing dispensing huge sums of money to ministers since \u201cIndependence\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 as a part of \u201cgame plan\u201d to \u201cblunt anti-India propaganda of separatists, he very subtly suggested that army has had a role in decision making process of the cabinet and in the electoral process in the state. Stating it was because of working of Technical Support Division (TSD) a unit of Military Intelligence created during his term in office with politicians like Ghulam Hassan Mir that \u201cPanchayat elections of 2011\u201d is today counted as an achievement.\u00a0 Every line of the statements made by the former army chief for past week is strikingly revealing and suggestive substantial presence of army in public, political and social space of the state.
\nDid the unit set up by former army chief\u00a0 use secret funds to topple the government led by Omar Abdullah in 2010 is poser?\u00a0 If there is some truth in it – why had scion of Abdullah family become b\u00eate noire for the army high command in 2010? Ostensibly, there seems no reason for it. In serving the interests of \u2018New Delhi\u2019 in the state, he is not different from other Chief Ministers who have ruled the state now for past 60 years. On the face of it will be difficult to trash the report by the Board of Officer of army about the toppling game but question arises, was the army chief\u00a0 looking for someone more \u201cductile\u201d\u2026. In 2010, when Kashmir was making headlines globally and the agitation in the state was internationally described as \u201csecond intifada\u201d, change of guard was very much in the grapevine. Along with Mir, names of two other National Conference Ministers were whispered in the corridors of power as likely choices . If these rumors were, just kite flying or spread by the concerned agencies for testing the waters is a question that needs to be looked into in the light of disclosure by the army probe.
\nNevertheless, there is nothing new in army having a role in all the political games in Jammu and Kashmir. The former army chief has only retold the history in stating that army has been at the centre of Kashmir politics since 1947.\u00a0 Immediately after landing of troops on 27 October 1947, the leadership that bragged of being architects of accession with Indian had to play second fiddle for army. \u2018These National Conference leaders had formed a volunteer militia\u00a0\u00a0 to provide transport and guides to Indian soldiers. Sent some volunteers them about the situation in various areas. As these volunteers approached these soldiers of the Sikh regiment, they were fired at killing most of them. Army sources describing these killings as \u201cmistaken identity\u201d, had put the figure of dead at seven. Many historians have put the figure of killed as twenty-seven. (Sheikh Abdullah by Ajit Bhattacharjea (preface XI). The story of a woman volunteer of the National Conference sent by Sheikh Abdullah as guide with these soldiers to Shalatang better left unsaid.
\nSheikh Abdullah always thought that it was because of him that Indian soldiers had landed in Kashmir. Many second rung leaders of his party conducted soldiers to remotest areas of Kashmir. Historian Rashid Taseer in his book Tahreeki Hurriyat Kashmir \u2013 1946-1949 Vol III gives details about the role played by NC leaders in making operations of Indian army a success in Kashmir.\u00a0 Sheikh also believed, they would be taking orders from him. In his book \u201cSlender Was the Thread: Kashmir Confrontation 1947-48\u201d,\u00a0 L.P. Sen\u00a0 mentioning an episode tells us how\u00a0 Sheikh Abdullah was told that army was not there to take advice or orders from him. \u2018Sheokh and his lieutenant Bakshi\u00a0\u00a0 arrived unannounced in the War Room set up by army at Srinagar- even without customary greetings they were shown the door.
\nJawaharlal Nehru used more than once army in Kashmir for political purposes wrote A.G. Noorani in an article some time back, he rightly called Sheikh Abdullah\u2019s deposition in 1953 as \u201cNehru\u2019s military operation in Kashmir.\u201d \u2018Indian army was told about Sheikh Abdullah\u2019s dismissal beforehand\u2019 writing about his role in dismal of Prime Minister of State,\u00a0\u00a0 Maj Gen. Hira Lal Atal writes in his book \u2018Nehru\u2019s Emissary in Kashmir\u2019, \u201cI left for Srinagar with Skelton staff sometime in July 1953 for assessing\u00a0 the situation and conducting the \u2018exercise.\u201d In his book he gives details, how he personally snooped on Abdullah, after getting information from a brigadier about his political and private activities.\u00a0 He mentions about Abdullah\u2019s \u201cconnection\u201d with a lady staying in Nedou\u2019s Hotel \u201chaving Pakistani leanings\u201d- he mentions how he barged in the room of the lady when Sheikh Abdullah was \u201ccloseted\u201d with her- later she was externed from the state\u2019 (page 162).\u00a0 So the statements of Gen V.K. Singh as rightly said by journalist Prem Shanker Jha cannot be brushed aside these provide important leads for understanding role of army in the state but it would need an investigative journalists like Adrian Levy and Cathy Scot Clark of the \u201cMeadows\u201d to tell the whole story\u2026<\/p>\n

Column was Published in Greater Kashmir on September 30, 2013<\/p>\n<\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 
\nZ.G. MUHAMMAD
\n\u00a0
\nIt is like proverbial mosquito entering into snout of an elephant and the aftermath thereof. That is how best one can describe the controversy sparked after The Indian Express in its 20 September 2013 issue carried a report about findings of an army probe into \u2018misusing\u2019 of funds by former Army Chief General V. K. Singh. In the long list of startling revelations, three directly concerned Jammu and Kashmir:\u00a0 One, Rs 19 million given to Ghulam Hassan Mir, presently Agriculture Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, to engineer a change of Government in Jammu and Kashmir. Two, Rs.24 million given to an NGO named “Jammu and Kashmir Humanitarian Service Organisation (JKHSO),” which was linked to “Yes Kashmir.\u201d and third buying off-air interception equipment, to conduct “unauthorized” covert operations. \u2019
\nShould I say that the report played a devil\u2019s advocate making the former chief to spill the beans? He said many things …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[177,123,75,176],"class_list":["post-1609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-take","tag-nawaz-sharif","tag-omar-abdullah","tag-sheikh-abdullah","tag-v-k-singh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609"}],"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=1609"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1611,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609\/revisions\/1611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}