Srinagar: National Conference (NC) on Tuesday termed the removal of the party founder Sheikh Abdullah’s picture from Jammu and Kashmir Police medal as a nefarious attempt to erase history, saying ‘Sher-i-Kashmir’ will continue to rule the hearts of the people.
With due respect to National Emblem, these attempts to erase our history, identity and icons show nefariousness of those running the show, NC state spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said here.
Dar said replacing names will not change anything and the NC founder and former chief minister will continue to rule the hearts of the people of J&K.
“People of J&K have struggled on many fronts to be where they are now. They fought oppression, autocracy. No one can change that. Not by replacing/changing names. Sheikh Sb will continue to rule the hearts of people of J&K, no matter what they or their masters do,” the spokesperson said.
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday announced that the image of the NC founder popularly known as ‘Sher-i-Kashmir’ embossed on the J&K Police medals for gallantry and meritorious service will be replaced with the national emblem.
An order to this effect was issued by the home department.
The government had earlier renamed Sher-i-Kashmir Police Medals’ as Jammu and Kashmir Police Medals’.
Meanwhile, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said Abdullah was a tall personality and replacing his name will make no difference.
“It will make no difference to his personality, but I have doubts over the mental balance of the people who did this, because he is such a personality who has played an important role in J&K’s history,” Mehbooba told reporters here.
The former chief minister said Abdullah gave so many years of his life in serving the people of J&K, brought good laws and played a very important role in joining J&K with India.
“If they want to erase the identity of such a leader after 70 years, then what can we say to them other than that it is their mental bankruptcy. When the two-nation theory was being discussed, Sheikh sahib took such a bold decision to join India, a secular country, rather than Pakistan,” she said.
CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami said the BJP’s “panglossian” view of “rewriting” the history by name changing may favour their “narrow communal agenda”, but it cannot absolve its complicity from annals.
“You cannot erase the contributions and historical significance of Sher-i-Kashmir by petty name changing gimmicks,” Tarigami said.
