New Delhi: India is going through a “difficult phase” and Muslims are living with “fear,” former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah said on Friday, while asserting that no one can destroy the country’s secular fabric.
He was speaking at the launch of The Lion of Naushera, a biography of Brigadier Mohammed Usman — the highest-ranking Indian Army officer killed in action during the 1948 Indo-Pakistani War — authored by Ziya Us Salam and Anand Mishra.
“India is passing through a difficult phase. Muslims feel fear, but that fear exists because the majority is not inherently communal — it is being suppressed,” Abdullah said. “I believe the country will emerge from this. No one can erase our secularism.”
Recalling history, he noted that while Muhammad Ali Jinnah wanted Kashmir to join Pakistan, Sheikh Abdullah chose Gandhi’s India. “Jinnah thought Muslims were fools and that Kashmir would come to Pakistan. But when the raiders came, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs — all Kashmiris — stood together to resist them,” he said.
Questioning the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir, Abdullah remarked, “Look at what we got for joining India. Today, we have an elected government, but real power lies with the lieutenant governor — a ‘viceroy’ sent from Delhi.”
He also recounted an exchange between Jinnah and Sheikh Abdullah. “Jinnah told him this is not the place for you, they will not do justice to you. Sheikh Sahab replied that Pakistan’s path is not ours; India, Gandhi’s India, is our path. He asked Jinnah — where will the Pandits, Sikhs, and Buddhists go? Do you have a place for them? Today, look at Pakistan’s situation.”
Abdullah said this history should be remembered by those who claim “Muslims cannot be trusted.”
Former vice-president Mohammad Hamid Ansari, a relative of Brigadier Usman, praised the officer’s sacrifice. “His exceptional leadership during the 1948 war and his ultimate sacrifice hold a revered place in our history,” Ansari said, calling the book “a timely reminder to present generations of the heroism that defended India’s integrity” and “a symbol of inclusive secularism,” quoting historian Ramachandra Guha.
RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha also paid tribute, noting that Brigadier Usman had a choice during Partition but chose to remain with India. “We live in a mostalia. Brigadier Usman evokes nostalgia for an India we seem to have lost,” he said.
