Vikramaditya terms Dy CM’s remarks on Maharaja as ‘Ill-Informed & Inflammatory’
Jammu Tawi, Mar 6: Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary on Thursday said that the Maharajas too were dictators as they were not elected but selected.
Speaking with reporters, the deputy Chief Minister, said, “Were Maharajas not dictators. Were they elected? No they were selected.” He added that they don’t call Prime Minister Narendra Modi a dictator as he has been elected by the people. “We have been elected by the people,” he said.
Meanwhile, Vikramaditya Singh, grandson of Maharaja Hari Singh, has strongly condemned the recent remarks made by Deputy Chief Minister, terming them “ill-informed and inflammatory.”
Singh criticized the Deputy CM’s comments labelling Maharaja Hari Singh as a despot and dictator, calling such statements “absurd” and reflective of a selective and politically motivated narrative that persists even 75 years after India’s independence.
In a scathing response, Vikramaditya Singh highlighted the contributions of Maharaja Hari Singh, emphasizing that the former ruler had introduced significant social, religious, legal, and domicile reforms in J&K. He reminded the Deputy CM that it was Maharaja Hari Singh who declared Jumat-Ul-Wida as a public holiday, Urdu as the official language, and established various educational institutions, banks, judicial courts, hospitals, and irrigation canals that continue to benefit the people to this day.
He also pointed out that Maharaja Hari Singh played a pivotal role in setting up the Praja Sabha in 1932, which comprised 21 Muslims, 10 Hindus, and 2 Sikhs, ensuring a representative governance structure.
Singh accused Surinder Choudhary of conveniently ignoring the history of democratically elected governments that ruled J&K between 1996 and 2018, during which hundreds of young boys and girls were killed or blinded by pellet guns in the name of maintaining law and order.
“Do you really think the average person on the streets of J&K even cares about what happened in 1931?” Singh questioned, dismissing the revival of what he termed as a “dead issue” of Martyrs’ Day in J&K as sheer hypocrisy. He blamed such selective narratives for destroying the progress and harmony of J&K for decades and urged political leaders to move forward instead of dwelling on past controversies.
