In an another embarrassment to the People’s Democratic Party, its coalition partner in the Jammu and Kashmir government, Bhartiya Janata Party boycotted the official Martyrs’ Day function led by the Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Monday. The BJP has called it a “separatist function”.
The official holiday in the state commemorates the 22 Kashmiris were shot dead on July 13, 1931, outside the Central jail in Srinagar by the soldiers of Hari Singh, the Dogra ruler of princely state. Martyrs’ Day has since come to be claimed by both the pro-freedom and pro-India political groups.
However, BJP MP RK Singh described the event as a separatist function. “My opinion is that J&K CM should not have gone to the ‘Martyr’s Day’ function of separatists, it’s wrong,” Singh told a TV channel.
The BJP’s boycott is seen as expression of Chief Minister Sayeed ’s powerlessness. It was only the latest occasion on which the PDP has run into opposition from its partner. The PDP has called its partners reaction “inappropriate”. The party’s chief spokesperson Mehboob Beg said that attending the official function to pay respects to the martyrs was an obligation that the ministers ought to have fulfilled. Any deviation from such a precedent was inappropriate, he said.
Tall promises
For the first time in last 25 years, the pro-freedom formations had not called for a shutdown on Monday in view of Ramzan. The leaders had, however, decided to lead a joint rally from the old city's Grand Mosque to the nearby Naqashband Sahib graveyard, where the martyrs are buried.
Paying tributes to the slain men on Sunday, the Chief Minister called them “brave heroes who laid down their lives against suppression and autocracy”. On Monday, he visited the graveyard and offered floral tributes. “The greatest homage one can pay to the martyrs is to rise above self and help in creating a tolerant society where everyone can grow in a free democratic atmosphere,” he said.
But contradicting his promises and claims, Mufti’s government left no stone unturned to stop a planned Martyrs’ Day rally. Ahead of the event, the government either detained most pro-freedom leaders, including Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik. A few pro-freedom leaders had tried to hold a rally in the city centre, Lal Chowk, but the police arrested them on spot.
Almost all the mainstream and pro-freedom parties have strongly reacted to BJP’s boycott and chief minister’s inability to prevent it. “While one understands Mufti Sahab’s compulsions to please and flatter the BJP, to subject the CM’s Office to such indignity is very unfortunate,” said former chief minister Omar Abdullah. “Let me also say the people of J&K are not saleable and cannot be bought and sold through economic packages while their political rights and their dignity is bartered.”
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The official holiday in the state commemorates the 22 Kashmiris were shot dead on July 13, 1931, outside the Central jail in Srinagar by the soldiers of Hari Singh, the Dogra ruler of princely state. Martyrs’ Day has since come to be claimed by both the pro-freedom and pro-India political groups.
However, BJP MP RK Singh described the event as a separatist function. “My opinion is that J&K CM should not have gone to the ‘Martyr’s Day’ function of separatists, it’s wrong,” Singh told a TV channel.
The BJP’s boycott is seen as expression of Chief Minister Sayeed ’s powerlessness. It was only the latest occasion on which the PDP has run into opposition from its partner. The PDP has called its partners reaction “inappropriate”. The party’s chief spokesperson Mehboob Beg said that attending the official function to pay respects to the martyrs was an obligation that the ministers ought to have fulfilled. Any deviation from such a precedent was inappropriate, he said.
Tall promises
For the first time in last 25 years, the pro-freedom formations had not called for a shutdown on Monday in view of Ramzan. The leaders had, however, decided to lead a joint rally from the old city's Grand Mosque to the nearby Naqashband Sahib graveyard, where the martyrs are buried.
Paying tributes to the slain men on Sunday, the Chief Minister called them “brave heroes who laid down their lives against suppression and autocracy”. On Monday, he visited the graveyard and offered floral tributes. “The greatest homage one can pay to the martyrs is to rise above self and help in creating a tolerant society where everyone can grow in a free democratic atmosphere,” he said.
But contradicting his promises and claims, Mufti’s government left no stone unturned to stop a planned Martyrs’ Day rally. Ahead of the event, the government either detained most pro-freedom leaders, including Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik. A few pro-freedom leaders had tried to hold a rally in the city centre, Lal Chowk, but the police arrested them on spot.
Almost all the mainstream and pro-freedom parties have strongly reacted to BJP’s boycott and chief minister’s inability to prevent it. “While one understands Mufti Sahab’s compulsions to please and flatter the BJP, to subject the CM’s Office to such indignity is very unfortunate,” said former chief minister Omar Abdullah. “Let me also say the people of J&K are not saleable and cannot be bought and sold through economic packages while their political rights and their dignity is bartered.”
