History cannot be buried or changed by removing names: Farooq Abdullah

Srinagar, Aug 18 (PTI) History cannot be buried or changed by removing the names of leaders who have not been a part of the BJP, it will “emerge” and “remain”, said National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Friday.

“They are removing Nehru’s and Indira Gandhi’s name. They are removing the names of every leader who is not a part of them, but history does not change,” Abdullah told reporters here when asked that the Jammu and Kashmir administration has dropped ‘Sher’ the popular name of his father and National Conference (NC) founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah from the Kashmir International Convention Centre.

The centre on the banks of Dal Lake was known as Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre.

The National Conference president said that the government has removed the history of Mughal rule of 800 years from books, but “does it mean Mughals were not here?”

“When the people go to see Taj Mahal what will they say, who made it? When they will go to the Red Fort, they will say who built it? When they will see Jamia Masjid, Humayun’s Tomb, Safdarjung Tomb, Qutub Minar, what will they say? You cannot bury history, history will emerge. We will disappear, these people will disappear like others, (but), history will remain,” he added.

Responding to a poser on the Supreme Court hearing a batch of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370, Abdullah said everyone is presenting their case which is there in front of the top court.

“Earlier also, two judgments have been given by the Supreme Court in favour of (Article) 370. We all are confident that our talk (arguments) before them, all lawyers who have put the case before them, that they will look at it justly and give justice to the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh,” he said.

When asked to comment on Democratic Progressive Azad Party chief Ghulam Nabi Azad’s remarks that majority of Muslims in India and Jammu and Kashmir have converted from Hinduism, the NC president said the former Congress leader knows the history.

“I cannot speak for him, it is for him to answer what was the necessity (for those remarks),” he said. The NC president said the “history of our state and the people is very different.”

“There is no doubt there was a period when there were Hindus there and then they all converted to Buddhism when Buddhism was on the rise. Once Buddhism disappeared, they reconverted themselves. That is a long history,” said Abdulllah.

“You must remember (sufi saint) Ameer-e-Kabeer came (to Kashmir), he brought Islam and trade with it, so that people who were really down in the dumps could do some work with their fingers and earn some honest wages,” he added.

The former Union minister said at that time, they “divided” people in the Hindu system into the higher Brahmin and the lower Brahmin.

“The lower Brahmin was not even allowed to come to the temple, he was downtrodden like today we have Dalits, exactly that happened to the lower Brahmins.

When they saw that Islam has come where there is no difference between the rich and the poor and everyone is equal, there are facilities for all and there is no division in people, they turned to Islam,” said Abdullah.

“That is the history. Islam progressed, brought in lot of good things like carpets, wood carving, entire Quran brought in a justice system which did not exist, so that justice system made people more and more aware of what Islam is and became Muslims, that is our history,” he added.

To a question about Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha saying that Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was free to go wherever he wanted to, the NC president said that it was a total lie.

“All this is a total lie, 100 per cent lie. He (Mirwaiz) cannot venture out, not to Jamia Masjid. How long they will tell lies? If he (Mirwaiz) is free, then why have they put (security) forces at his door and nobody can enter there?” Abdullah asked.

“Are you able to interview Mirwaiz? If you can’t interview Mirwaiz, then is he free? There you are. It is before you, I don’t have to put the case before you, you know already what the situation is,” he added.