On March 25, 1952, National Conference leader Sheikh Abdullah selected 10 people and made them MPs of the Lok Sabha as also Rajya Sabha from Jammu & Kashmir. On that day, the discussions on the issue of these selections lasted barely three hours from 10 am to 1 pm in Grey Hall of Jammu where a session of Constituent Assembly of J&K was being held. In sharp contrast to this, the first Lok Sabha elections of 1951-52 were held throughout Bharat in 68 phases! J&K was an exception to these as no elections were held and Sheikh selected MPs a month after elections had concluded in February 1952.
How and why no elections were held in J&K needs to be answered but first things first. To understand the genesis of these extraordinary powers that Sheikh had, we will need to go back a couple of years. In late 1949, National Conference leader Sheikh Abdullah got Article 370 (moved as 306-A) included in the Indian Constitution. All other provisions were included in the Constitution after lengthy discussions among members of the Constituent Assembly. B R Ambedkar is often mentioned as a leader who worked tirelessly as Chairman of the Drafting Committee. He tried to satisfy various members by answering their questions and incorporating changes according to the suggestions he received.
The draft Constitution presented by Ambedkar to Constituent Assembly Chairman Rajendra Prasad in February 1948 did not have any provision to give any special treatment to Jammu & Kashmir. No discussions of any special treatment were discussed when this draft was prepared. Nor were there any discussions on anything of this nature till October 1949, a time of 20 months. When we read debates of various constitutional provisions, we marvel how each point was discussed threadbare and then only made it to the final stuff.
Article 370 was not known to any member but thrust upon them at Nehru’s behest by Gopalasami Ayyangar who drafted it. Ambedkar was clearly opposed to any special treatment for a section of the country’s citizens. In his meeting with Sheikh Abdullah, Ambedkar said: “You want India to defend Kashmir, feed its people, give Kashmiris equal rights all over India. But you want to deny India and Indians all rights in Kashmir. I am Law Minister of India, and cannot be party to such a betrayal of national interests.’’
Ambedkar is well known for his espousal of rights of the downtrodden, called Harijans and referred to as Scheduled Castes (SCs) in the Constitution. However, in March 1952, Sheikh Abdullah did not give any representation to SCs, STs or any Ladakhi when his turn came for picking up 10 MPs for the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha from J&K. This was contrary to what had happened in the Lok Sabha elections held elsewhere where due representation to different communities was ensured.
Sheikh Abdullah’s failure to give due representation to the SCs was flagged by Mahasha Nahar Singh, a member of the Constituent Assembly of J&K. Singh’s pleas were ignored and he was snubbed by Sheikh by terming his demand a pointer of a slavish mentality.
Sheikh had nominated four named here as MPs for the Rajya Sabha and these included 1. Sardar Budh Singh 2. Colonel Pir Mohammad Khan 3. Rai Bahadur Pandit Anant Ram and 4. Aga Syed. He also selected six people for the Lok Sabha and they were 1. Maulana Mohd Saeed Masoodi 2. Major Lachman Singh Charak 3. Sofi Mohd Akbar 4. Pandit Shiv Narain Fotedar 5. Ch. Mohd Shaffi and 6. Khwaja Ghulam Qadir.
The constitutional accommodation of SCs, STs and other communities in the Lok Sabha was called as weakness of the Indian Constitution. Besides “religious and communal discord, weakness of the Indian society was its sectarianism’’, Sheikh said while ruling out any representation to SCs.
