{"id":2698,"date":"2016-05-19T10:56:37","date_gmt":"2016-05-19T05:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=2698"},"modified":"2016-05-19T10:59:52","modified_gmt":"2016-05-19T05:29:52","slug":"leaders-why-they-sign-faustian-agreements-for-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/leaders-why-they-sign-faustian-agreements-for-chair\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders? Why They Sign Faustian Agreements For “Chair”"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

Sometimes, an old experience comes handy to analyse new political developments like the ones that have been taking place in the State in quick \"Seikh<\/a>succession for past few months. \u00a0Such as hideous moves for changing the demography of the state by constructing \u201csettlement colonies\u201d or through its new Industrial policy establishing territorial hegemony and squeezing space of the state subject – ominously suggesting driving people to the wall.\"Indira<\/a><\/p>\n

In an interview in April 1984, the former Prime Minister of India Morarji Desai told me that people of Jammu and Kashmir should be thankful to him for having allowed them to taste the first bite of the forbidden fruit \u2018democracy.’ He was referring to the 1977 Assembly elections in the state. These elections compared to farce elections of 1950, and four fraudulent elections held in the state after 1957, were considered as freer. \u00a0The then Janata Party leaders of the state that included old guards like \u00a0Masoodi, \u00a0 Bazaz and Qara supported by some top Janata Party leaders had pleaded for rigging of the Assembly elections. Morarji Desai had refused to oblige the state leaders and reportedly asked the State governor to ensure a fair election in the State. Here, I am not to vouchsafe for the fairness of the 1977 election. Nonetheless, his statement had made me believe that democracy has come to stay in the state and hereafter \u00a0 Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers in the State will not be installed by New Delhi. Moreover, it had also made me believe now on the coveted chair of Chief Minister will carry no price tag- a price that people had been \u00a0made to pay since forty seven. My this belief was shortest lived, three months after my interview with the former Prime Minister of India, \u00a0New Delhi was again at its game. It removed an \u201celected\u201d Chief Minister and through machinations installed a new government. This act did further strengthen public perception that Indian democracy stops at Lakhanpur. And the Chair of Chief Minister in the state continues to have a price tag- strangulating public opinion, denying fundamental rights of people, furthering New Delhi\u2019s interest in the state against the wishes of the overwhelming majority in the state, etc.<\/p>\n

The fallout of the 1984 game plan in itself is an important watershed for understanding the post-1987 scenario that like a tornado overnight changed the political landscape of the state. Nonetheless, it is not subject of this column instead it will be analysing how New Delhi has used and has been using the chair of the chief executive for furthering its agenda in the state and perpetuating the status quo.\"Sadiq<\/a><\/p>\n

That New Delhi for installing a \u00a0 \u201cPrime Minister\u201d \/Chief Minister in the state had fixed a price tag or fixed terms to use a Shakespearean phrase “I’ll have my bond” becomes obvious in Nehru\u2019s letter of 27 September 1947, to Sardar Patel. \u00a0In this letter, he mentions to him about the importance of enlisting Sheikh Abdullah\u2019s support for \u2018bringing an accession of the State to India and handing over reigns of the state to him. \u00a0For offsetting international pressure on holding a plebiscite in the State, Dr. Karan Singh in chapter eight of his book \u2018Heir Apparent\u2019 has recorded how Sardar Patel asked Maharaja Hari Singh to leave the state and relinquish power for Sheikh Abdullah. Sheikh Abdullah, after serving New Delhi purpose as a \u2018show boy\u2019 in the United Nations was shown the door. \u00a0The Chair of the \u2018PM\u2019 was then leased to Bakshi for ten years for bartering \u00a0 right to self-determination of the people of the state by getting the conditional accession ratified by the \u201cState Constituent Assembly\u201d. Having served, New \"Mir<\/a>Delhi\u2019s purpose Bakshi was asked to quit. Even gifting seven mound gold throne from the State treasury to New Delhi failed to get him lease extended by few more years. \u00a0 \u00a0Then it was leased to Sadiq for enabling New Delhi to bulldoze its way for integrating the state by eroding the article 370 by carrying out 6th Amendment to the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution and concurring for extending of the central laws to the state. \u00a0(In his book on Article 370Noorani has discussed the subject in detail). After Sadiq\u2019s death, New Delhi used Syed Mir Qasim as a sales agent for marketing the \u201cchair\u201d to the \u201ctallest\u201d of all leaders, Sheikh Abdullah. The price tag, this time, was the twenty-two years movement for plebiscite and sacrifices of thousands of the Plebiscite Front workers.<\/p>\n

In the post, 1995, scenario we see more than one bidder at the auction shop. The barrage of the hideous moves that surfaced during past couple of months including constructing of shelters for the non-state subject Saink Colonies, industrial policy ostensibly aimed at changing the demography of the state. Or what \u00a0a fellow columnist M. Ashraf called \u201cphysical integration\u201d seem to be part be the same kind of contracts that earlier \u201cleaders\u201d had entered into for the \u201cChair.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is no secret that the \u2018sale of chair\u2019 \u00a0under the fa\u00e7ade of democracy has been right from 1947, used at the international level has a diplomatic tool for telling the world that all was hunky dory in the state. It is not something unique that has been happening in our State. The uncertain political \u00a0situation as has been obtaining in the state for past sixty-seven years throw up vested interests that barter away political aspirations of the people for power and personal comfort. Nonetheless, their acts find no legitimacy with their people and history is replete with instances where leaders pursuing anti-people policies or go against the political aspirations of the masses have faced the massive public wrath as was seen in the recent times against dictators like Stalin and Gaddafi. Let us introspect, had we as a nation ab initio resisted the moves in 1947 or even in 1953, the price-tagged- chair political culture would not have survived.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Published in Greater Kashmir on 17-05-16<\/p>\n

\n

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

 
\nBy Z.G. Muhammad
\n <\/p>\n

Sometimes, an old experience comes handy to analyse new political developments like the ones that have been taking place in the State in quick succession for past few months. \u00a0Such as hideous moves for changing the demography of the state by constructing \u201csettlement colonies\u201d or through its new Industrial policy establishing territorial hegemony and squeezing space of the state subject – ominously suggesting driving people to the wall.
\nIn an interview in April 1984, the former Prime Minister of India Morarji Desai told me that people of Jammu and Kashmir should be thankful to him for having allowed them to taste the first bite of the forbidden fruit \u2018democracy.’ He was referring to the 1977 Assembly elections in the state. These elections compared to farce elections of 1950, and four fraudulent elections held in the state after 1957, were considered as freer. \u00a0The then Janata Party leaders of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-take"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698"}],"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=2698"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2701,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698\/revisions\/2701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}