Taking to task the Kashmir centric media and the Kashmiri leadership for unnecessarily opposing,condemning and attributing motives to changing of SKICC’s name by omitting Sheikh Abdullah’s title Sher-i-Kashmir, Brig Anil Gupta, Spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party has asked them to stop politicising the administration’s decisionand misleading the people through a deliberate misinformation campaign aimed at creating rift between the public and the administration. Recently, the state administration has changed the name of Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) to Kashmir International Conference Complex.
“A misinformation campaign is being spread as usual by linking it with the process of unnecessary name changing though they know the truth. Unfortunately, some of them have even tried to give it a communal touch by claiming that Hindu names of some streets and institutions have remained unchanged over a period. By doing so, they are trying to exploit emotional sentiments of the locals and dissuading them from integration with rest of the country,” asserted Brig Gupta. None is willing to tell the truth.
The truth is that Article 18 of the Constitution of India prohibits grant of titles to Indian citizens and their use by prefixing with their names. Article 18 prevents the government from confirming any title except military and academic distinction. Article 18 also prohibits the Indian citizens from using titles with their names except military ranks and academic honorifics like Doctor. Sher-i-Kashmir is a title, clarified Brig Gupta and thus needed to be removed as required by the Constitution of India and is not spiteful at all as is being projected by the vested lobby.
“But the discarded Kashmiri leadership views every legitimate move of the government as an arbitrary act and conspiracy against Kashmiri identity”, rued Brig Gupta. To the extent that some Kashmiri leaders have tried to draw unnecessary parallel with renaming of Nashri Tunnel as Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Tunnel, lamented Brig Gupta. They need to understand the difference between a name and a title. While there is no restriction in naming the buildings/other assets after the names of distinguished personalities and leaders, Constitution prohibits the use of titles for such purposes.
“In a true democracy, there is no space for artificial distinctions among the same society. The Constitution preaches equality and that’s why it abolished the titles. Rather than sermonising the government to understand what is in national interest, it is high time the Kashmir centric media and the Kashmiri leadership learns to keep pace with national norms and follow the Constitution of India in letter and spirit,” asserted Brig Gupta.