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What's the mystery of the Indira-Abdullah accord?
Thursday December 13, 2012 05:58:33 PM,
Sheikh Qayoom,
IANS
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Srinagar: For nearly 37 years, Jammu and Kashmir's
regional National Conference (NC) has been criticizing the central
government for not implementing the terms of the 1975 Indira-Abdullah
accord. All of a sudden, some elements of the NC leadership now
say there was no accord.
After 22 years of estrangement from mainstream politics, the NC
founder, the late Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, assumed power in Jammu
and Kashmir in 1975 following the signing of the accord by his
emissary, Mirza Afzal Beg, and then prime minister Indira Gandhi's
emissary, G. Parthasarthy.
The terms of the accord included renaming the chief minister as
the Wazir-e-Azam and the governor as Sadr-e-Riyasat, the
nomenclature in vogue before the Sheikh's arrest in 1953. The
accord also said central laws extended to Jammu and Kashmir after
1953 would be reviewed and would be revoked in case they impeded
the state's special status.
Sheikh Nazir, NC general secretary and nephew of the party's
founder, now says the late Sheikh had not signed the 1975 accord
at all.
In an interview to Greater Kashmir, a prominent local newspaper,
Sheikh Nazir replying to a question said: "Before levelling
allegations against the Sheikh, people should read history and
check the facts. The 1975 accord doesn't have the signature of
Sheikh Sahib; neither was it tabled in the state legislature".
Not many among the younger generation of Kashmiris would know that
the Sheikh had become chief minister of the state with Congress
support after the 1975 accord although his party did not have a
single legislator in the state assembly at that time.
"The accord was signed by the two emissaries and the Sheikh came
to power after the accord was endorsed by him. Saying that Sheikh
had not signed or endorsed the accord is trying to negate history.
How did Sheikh assume the reins of power after remaining out of
mainstream politics for 22 years after his arrest in 1953," asked
M.L. Kak, a senior Kashmiri journalist who lives in Delhi. Kak has
extensively reported Kashmir politics for over five decades.
Mehboob Beg, an NC member of parliament and son of the late Mirza
Afzal Beg, responded to the controversy by saying: "It will be
wrong to say that accord happened between Mirza Afzal Beg and G.
Parthasarthy."
"Mirza Afzal Beg could not go to meet Parthasarthy himself, Sheikh
and Indira Gandhi were part of it. I don't know in what context
Sheikh Nazir said so, but the fact remains that Mirza Afzal Beg
was merely a representative of Sheikh when the accord was signed,"
Beg added.
What baffles observers here is why after 37 long years a
controversy is being raked up about whether or not Sheikh signed
the accord.
"The terms of the 1975 accord were never fulfilled after the
Sheikh came to power. To wriggle out of its responsibility to have
the terms of the accord fulfilled, the NC could now be saying
there was no accord at all", Kak argued.
(Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at sheikh.abdul@ians.in)
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