Muslim Rashtriya Manch urges President
Virag Pachpore
A six-member delegation of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM) headed by MRM patron Shri Indresh Kumar called on the President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi and urged him to direct the Union Government to reject the report and recommendations of the Dilip Padgaonkar Committee on Jammu & Kashmir.
Besides Shri Indresh Kumar, the delegation included former Union Minister Shahnawaz Hussain, MRM National Convener Mohd. Afzal, Co-conveners Ghulam Ali Engineer from J & K, Shahjad Ali from Agra, and Abu Bakr Naqvi from Tonk, Rajasthan.
The delegation also urged the President to direct the Government to scrap the controversial Article 370 guaranteeing special status to the State of J & K as the MRM believed that this Article was discriminatory and anti-development.
The President had initially granted 15 minutes time to the delegation but the meeting lasted for 45 minutes. Shri Mukherjee gave a patience hearing to the delegation and received the memorandum. He expressed surprise over the fact that the Muslim members of the Constituent Assembly like Maulana Hasrat Mohani had strongly opposed the Article 370 and even resigned from the post in protest.
Shri Indresh Kumar told the President that Rafi Ahmed Kidwai had suggested to Sheikh Abdullah and Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru about settling Hindu refugees coming from Pakistan in Kashmir Valley so that the equilibrium of population could be maintained.
The MRM had collected 8,04,598 signatures of the Muslims in India demanding total rejection of the report of the interlocutors and scrapping of Article 370. These many signatures were also submitted to the President. This was a pleasant surprise for the President who did not at all expect that so large number of Muslims would oppose the special status to J&K.
Briefing the President about Hum Hindustani—Jammu & Kashmir Hindustan Ka movement launched by the MRM, the delegation stated that the movement, first of its kind in independent Bharat launched by the Muslims, generated great awareness amongst the Muslim community about the nefarious designs of the anti-Bharat elements and their supporters.
The delegation later interacted with the media outside the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Talking to the mediapersons Shri Indresh Kumar, Shri Shahnawaz Hussain and Mohd. Afzal said that the President gave a patient hearing to their submission and assured them proper action.
They said that this was the first time the Muslims of India had taken up cudgels for a real national cause. No such movement had been launched by the Muslims in India after Independence, the MRM leaders said.
The memorandum said that the MRM believed that the report and recommendations made by the interlocutors appointed by the Government of India on Jammu and Kashmir issue were detrimental to the national security, and injurious to social harmony. J & K has been the integral and inseparable territory of Bharat, and any compromise with the territorial integrity of J & K should not be tolerated.
The memorandum stated that Article 370 which guarantees special status to J & K was in fact responsible for the backwardness of the State. It expressed surprise over the recommendation of the interlocutors to grant a special and permanent status to this discriminatory statutory provision which even separated Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir. The MRM believed that this particular provision hampered the unity and integrity of our country and allowed separatists in J & K to vitiate the atmosphere there against Bharat. The same also provided leverage to the international vested interests and power mongers to play their dirty games jeopardising the national security and social harmony and peace in Bharatiya sub-continent.
The MRM had conducted this unique movement in four phases in different parts of the country which included burning the report of the interlocutors at public places and collecting signatures of the Muslims all over the country to generate awareness about the dangerous portents of Article 370 vis-à-vis report of the interlocutors. The MRM had organised a massive dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on December 18, 2011 in which over 10,000 Muslims from all over the country participated.
During the month-long signature campaign the MRM succeeded in collecting over 8 lakh signatures of the Muslims in Bharat, explaining them the ground realities in J & K. The State-wise collected signatures included:-
Jammu and Kashmir 0,43,305
Rajasthan 2,02,510
Madhya Pradesh 1,31,100
Maharashtra 1,29,610
Haryana/Punjab/Delhi 0,47,080
Bihar/Jharkhand/Bengal/
Odisha/Karnataka 0,33,183
Uttar Pradesh 1,21,410
Uttarakhand 0,63,018
Goa/Gujarat/Chhattisgarh 0,33,382
Total Signatures 8,04,598
The signatories included Muslims from all walks of life including maulanas, moulvis, imams, hafizs, and such religious personalities, intellectuals and commoners out of their immense love and devotion to Mother Bharat. The MRM conducted a national seminar in Jammu on May 7 & 8, 2013 in the fourth phase of this movement which was attended by over 200 Muslims from all states including J & K. All the participants opposed the Article 370 and denounced the recommendations of the interlocutors.
The MRM delegations said that it was of the firm view that any development of J & K was possible only when the discriminatory Article 370 was scrapped forthwith. Besides, the MRM also reminded the President about the two unanimous resolutions passed by the Parliament of India immediately after the Chinese aggression of 1962 and another in 1994 regarding retrieving our territory lost to the enemies in wars with China and Pakistan.
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