Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference today paid tributes to Baba-e-Qoum Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah on his 40th death anniversary and termed him a man of iron determination.
While paying rich tributes to Sheikh Sahib, Party rank and file called him a father figure and political colossus, who helped change Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh from a feudal and colonial society to a free, democratic and secular one.
An inspiring political pageant, the functionaries said that throughout his political career, Sheikh Sahib symbolized the aspirations of the Kashmiri people as no single individual could have even dreamt of doing. “Although rooted in Kashmir, he had attained a national standing with his name becoming synonymous in the minds of countrymen with socialism, humanism, pluralism, and democracy,” they said.
His political direction to the state in the shape of the Naya Kashmir manifesto had an unmistakably socialistic stamp that guaranteed freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and meetings. The vision of Sher-e-Kashmir, the functionaries held espoused to provide a reasonable standard of living for all people in the state irrespective of their caste, creed, religion and region.
“The spirit of secularism and tolerance possessed by Baba-e-Qoum was the cumulative effect of the environment which generation after generation has fine-tuned the psyche of Kashmiris, Sheikh sahib was not any different, he also exhibited the spirit of tolerance, mutual respect and camaraderie towards all sects and creeds. A mass movement organizer, Sheikh Sahib’s struggle was never aimed to alleviate the suffering of particular followers of a faith,” they said.
“He worked tirelessly and suffered incarcerations throughout for the total redemption of the people in Jammu and Kashmir from abject poverty. He gave a new lease of life to the fear-paralyzed people of all the regions of J&K. The first cabinet he headed was insightful of his secular temperament; people like GL Dogra, Sardar Budh Singh, Kushak Bakula and DP Dhar were given important portfolios in the cabinet he headed,” they added.
