[Reader-list] I’m not Indian, says Bar Prez

[Pawan Durani]

http://www.risingkashmir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22289&Itemid=1

After Abdullah and Nazir, Qayoom dares Delhi in court

Ishfaq Tantry
Srinagar, April 07: In an unprecedented development, J&K Bar
Association President Wednesday made an open statement before the High
Court (HC) saying “he isn’t an Indian citizen and doesn’t believe in
the constitution of India”.


Qayoom made this statement while being cross examined in the case
relating to contempt of HC orders by the Kotbalwal Jail authorities,
which today came up before Justice Muhammad Yaqoob Mir.

On January 9, Bar Association had filed a contempt petition 426/2010
against Kotbalwal Jail SP and DSP “for violating HC orders dated
January 1 by disallowing a four-member Bar team to meet the jail
inmates on 7 January 2010.

Subsequently, the Bar had decided to lead six witnesses against the SP
and DSP to prove their contempt case. In the first step towards that,
Qayoom deposed before the HC on Tuesday as one of the witnesses of the
Bar.

Today, during cross examination in the post lunch session, Advocate
Sheikh Shakeel and Advocate Syed Tasaduq Khawaja, the counsel for the
contemnors, Kotbalwal Jail SP Mirza Saleem Beg and DySP R S Jamwal
asked Bar president Qayoom a specific question.

“Do you believe yourself to be a citizen of India?”

Qayoom replied: “No. I’m not a citizen of India. I’m a resident of
Jammu and Kashmir.”

The defense counsel then asked, “Do you have faith in the Constitution
of India?” to which the Bar President replied: “No I’ve no faith in
the Indian constitution. You’ve yourself eroded the Indian
constitution in J&K.”

As Qayoom was making this statement before the court, which was being
simultaneously recorded, one of his colleagues asked him to reconsider
this part of the statement but Qayoom did not stop and continued.

“I’m not afraid. If they put me behind bars for this, let them do it.
Let it come on record.”

Though in the recent history there is no such precedent wherein in a
prominent Kashmiri has openly declared himself not an Indian citizen,
one such move was made by former Prime Minister of J&K Sheikh Muhammad
Abdullah in 1960s when he embarked on the Hajj pilgrimage.

“In 1964, when Sheikh Abdullah decided to proceed for Hajj, he
declared he wants his passport issued as a Kashmiri national not as an
Indian citizen. In fact, later on he was issued one such passport by
the authorities but the issued then rocked the Indian Parliament,”
said Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, a noted Kashmiri commentator who
teaches Law at the University of Kashmir. “Specifically, I don’t
remember any such move in the recent times wherein a statement to this
effect has been made in the open court.”

About the legal ramifications of such a statement by the Bar
president, Prof Showkat said: “If we go by the definition of the Union
of India, at many places, the territory has been defined as whole of
India except the state of J&K.”

He said: “There is a general tendency among the Kashmiris to portray
themselves as Kashmiri nationals rather than Indian citizens.”

In May 2008, National Conference president Omar Abdullah wrote in his
blog about his uncle, who, because of his opposition to Kashmir’s
accession to India, has always refused to be associated with anything
“Indian”.

According to NC insiders, the uncle Omar was referring to was Sheikh Nazir.

“I’ve an uncle who more often than not I disagree with but I admire
the conviction he has — he disagrees with what happened in 1947 and
subsequent events and so refuses to carry a passport,” Chief Minister
Omar Abdullah blogged in 2008.

“He has never applied for one. For the longest time he never left the
State and only travelled by road between Srinagar and Jammu because he
refused to travel on ‘Indian’ Airlines.”

Sheikh Nazir, 70, General Secretary of the National Conference is the
nephew of National Conference leader Sheikh Abdullah and was raised by
him as his son.