In USA, Omar Says Last Dogra Maharaja Was For Independent J&K, Calls For The Restoration Of Autonomy

Former Chief Minister and National Conference working president, Omar Abdullah, while speaking at the Berkeley University, early this week, has said that last Dogra ruler of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was more interested in an independent Kashmir.

“The Maharaja, as I understand it, was more interested in an independent Jammu and Kashmir. He asked for time to decide (future of his state) and didn’t opt either for India or for Pakistan. So on the night of August 15, 1947, when India attained independence and Pakistan was born, actually a third independent (entity) came into existence and that was Jammu and Kashmir. It remained independent for few months. But it was a short-lived period”, Omar said in his opening remarks at the Berkeley University on April 20.

He was speaking on the topic, “The Path Forward” in Jammu and Kashmir,

He said the tribal invasion from across the border “in a sense forced the Maharaja’s hands” and he sought help from India to repel the invasion. “India that time rightly said, look you are an independent entity and our forces have no right to come to your rescue. The only way Indian Army can come to rescue Jammu and Kashmir if J&K acceded to the Union of India, which is what happened and Jammu and Kashmir become part of Union of India," he said, adding Indian Army came in after the Instrument of Accession was signed.

Omar said an issue of Jammu and Kashmir went up to the Security Council of the United Nations. He cited Resolution 47 of 1948. He said the Resolution says people (of Jammu and Kashmir) would be given the right to choose which dominion they want to go. The Resolution, Omar said, lays down certain rules, like Pakistan would withdraw its forces from the territorial boundaries of Jammu and Kashmir first. “It is withdrawing, not downsize, downscale, or reduce”, Omar said laying emphasis. He said following the withdrawal of Pakistani troops, India has to downsize its troop level that would manage the plebiscite authority to carry out the exercise. But, Omar said, Pakistan never took the first step.

He said over the years Kashmir has remained as an unfinished agenda of the partition for Pakistan as Islamabad couldn’t understand how a Muslim majority State would opt for stay with India.

He said unlike other states of India, the princely State of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to the Union of India but it didn’t merge in toto. “That is why Jammu and Kashmir enjoys a distinct position within the Indian Union. We are the only state with our own flag, only State with our own constitution, we are the only state for whom laws passed by the Parliament in New Delhi do not apply automatically unless the State government ratifies those laws for the extension to Jammu and Kashmir”, he said.

Omar said when the Accession terms were finalized, the Union of India was responsible for four things only in Jammu and Kashmir: Currency, Communication, Defence and Foreign affairs. “Everything else was the State’s domain, which meant, Supreme Court of India, Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Election Commission of India, Indian Administrative Services, Indian Police Service had no jurisdiction on Jammu and Kashmir.” He said the present constitutional position of the State was a pale shadow of its past. “This is one of the reasons, why we are facing the problem in Jammu and Kashmir”, he said alluding toward the erosion of the autonomy.

He said at present the biggest problem in Jammu and Kashmir is the security situation. “Almost 30 years later we are still dealing with an uprising, we are still dealing with militancy and we are still dealing the terrorism”, Omar said pointing toward armed insurgency that broke out in the State in 1989, when his father Dr Farooq Abdullah was Chief Minister of the State. He said what started purely as an indigenous struggle for political rights (in 1989) are no longer an indigenous struggle. He termed transformation of the political struggle into a religious one, saying at least fighters from six different nationalities including Sudan, Chechnya, have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir over the years though a large number of militants were locals.

He said the worrying drift was joining of the two youths from two states of India to Kashmir militancy. “Even though India has second largest Muslim population after Indonesia, it is only recently that Indian Muslims have joined militancy”, he said and mentioned two recruits, one was from the Telangana State of India, who was killed in an encounter last month and another is active and hails from Assam. “That is a significant change and it will have grave implication”, Omar said.

He said Kashmir issue continues to have an internal and an external dimension. He said a significant part of the State is with Pakistan and since 1947 India has not done anything to alter the situation. He said even during the Kargil war in 1999 the sanctity of the LoC was respected. “One of the ways that we have to make move forward is that we need to sit down with Pakistan and once and for all address the issue,” he said. He said perhaps friends “in the right places” at the international level can facilitate this process between India and Pakistan and try and address “some of the suspicions we have.” 

Omar as the Way Forward also insisted restoring autonomous status to the state to its fullest extent possible as it existed in 1953. But he also showed flexibility on his part saying workable model can be adopted and many things could be taken off the table like jurisdiction of the Election Commission of India to Jammu and Kashmir in the hope that New Delhi will respond in the kind. “In the end, we should arrive at a workable model that to some extent restore Jammu and Kashmir its autonomous position even if it doesn’t take us where we would like it to be”, Omar said.

With Jammu and Kashmir being called the highest militarized region, Omar conceded the State has far too many troops and soldiers than it should have. He, however, said Jammu and Kashmir have remained theatre of all wars India fought with Pakistan and it was also part of the war theatre during 1962 India-China war. “So regardless whether there is militancy in Jammu and Kashmir or not, so long as China and Pakistan are militarized Jammu and Kashmir will have a military presence. But the hope is that military presence will be as it was before 1989, which is on the borders, on the Line of Control and the Line of Actual Control, not in the civilian areas, because that is where problems arise. There have been reports and incidents of grave human rights violations that have not been adequately addressed,” he said.

He also pitched for Truth and Reconciliation (TR) model which should be applicable to both the parts of Jammu and Kashmir. He said people have not only died in this part of Jammu and Kashmir due to the long drawn conflict but they have also died “whether in training camps or through natural causes” in the Pakistani part of Kashmir.

 “We have right to ask how it happened”, Omar said.

Naseer Ganai in Srinagar