Srinagar, Nov 02: Kicking out yet another brick from Kashmir’s manufactured political narratives, the chief spokesman of the ruling National Conference, Dr. Mustafa Kamaal, on Wednesday described the Indira-Abdullah Accord of 1975 as ‘unfinished,’ asserting that the pact did not even bear the signatures of its architects.
The NC leader continued his furious broadsides at the Congress, accusing its state unit of being a “problem” that “recruited every illiterate it could lay its hands on as its leader, and let him loose to issue statements.”
“The truth of my words is like an atom bomb, but it will not harm the state government,” Dr. Kamaal told newsmen at party headquarters. “I do not need to learn history from the Congress. What can these Johnny-come-lately Congress leaders tell me about history when I know more about it than they will ever learn?”
The ruling party leader said that the NC’s alliance with the Congress was a “bad bargain” but had been compelled to undertake it in the interest of restoring democratic institutions and better governance, and admitted that “unhappy’' with his diatribes against the coalition partner, Dr. Farooq Abdullah had asked him to desist.
“A bad elected government is preferable to good governor’s rule. The NC became a partner in power solely for the public interest,” he said.
Dr. Kamaal said that the supposedly game-changing accord between the then prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi, and Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah in 1975 was still unfinished and did not bear the signatures of either of the principles.
“Let any political party come forward with the signed Accord. I will take back my words” he said.
“Let any political party come forward with the signed Accord. I will take back my words” he said.
“The committee led by the late Mirza Muhammad Afzal Beig and G Parthasarthy had prepared a document of 87 laws out of the 92 applied to the state between 1952 and 1975, leaving the remaining five for the two leaders to deliberate and decide upon,” he said.
“Issues like the Supreme Court, the CAG, the Election Commission, the prime minister, and the sadr-e-riyasat had been left for the two leaders to discuss in New Delhi, but Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah sensed the trap and did not leave for the meeting, asking Mrs Gandhi for assurances of the pre-52 position being restored before signing the pact,” he said.
“The two leaders could not meet thereafter, and the Accord remained unfinished,” he said.
“Former chief minister Syed Mir Qasim too has attested in his autobiography that the exercise had remained incomplete,” he said.
The NC leaders expressed fears of delays in resolving the Kashmir issue leading to yet another war.
“It is we who took the issue to the United Nations, but it has not been resolved even after 64 years,” he said.
“The sky had been claimed to be the limit for Kashmir (by New Delhi) in 1996, but nothing moved on the ground. The recommendations of the prime minister’s working groups too have been buried, and now there is no trace of the interlocutors’ final reports as well,” he said.
“The chairman of the Hurriyat (G), Syed Ali Shah Geelani, backed stone-pelting for one full year,” the NC leader said in reply to a question. “But during last year’s agitation, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq declared in a Jamai Masjid sermon that separatists were not involved in the practice, and that it was being instigated by the PDP,” he said.
“Even BJP leader LK Advani has said in Delhi that the PDP was funding stone-pelters in Kashmir,” he said.
In reply to another question, Dr. Kamaal said that grenade attacks had resurfaced mysteriously just when plans to withdraw the AFSPA partially in Kashmir were being finalized.
“The needle of suspicion naturally swung towards the wardi-wallahs, and I had also made a statement to that effect, but asserted that the truth would come out in police investigations,” he said.
“Draconian laws like the AFSPA gave immunity to the uniformed forces from prosecution, and exempt them from appearing in courts,” he said.
The NC leader asked the Congress to stop “plotting and intriguing” against his party, reacting to its leaders’ demands to evict him (from the NC) by quipping: when Congress leaders point one finger at me, the other four get pointed at them.
Dr. Kamaal praised union home minister, P Chidambaram for clarifying on the issue of the AFSPA in Kashmir.
“How is it possible for the state Congress president, Prof Saiffuddin Soz, to be in the dark when the Cabinet Committee on Security has been discussing repealing the AFSPA in Kashmir for the past year,” he said.
KO
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