The Jammu & Kashmir government Saturday withdrew two books from its school libraries on the ground that they contained “highly inappropriate content” on separatism. Eight officials from the school department have been suspended, and one contractual employee terminated, after the row broke out.
The withdrawn books – ‘Personalities and Legends of J&K’ by Hilal Ahmed and Santosh Meena, and ‘Great Personalities of Jammu and Kashmir’ by Dr Sushant Giri — were published by Oberoi Book Service, Jammu, and Anurag Prakashan, Delhi, and supplied to school libraries as part of Samagra Shiksha for higher secondary classes.
According to an order by Ram Niwas Sharma, Commissioner/Secretary, School Education Department, the books contained references with the “potential to create law-and-order issues”, and their selection reflected “serious negligence, dereliction of duty and lack of due diligence”.
The order also blacklisted the authors and their publishing houses from publishing any other material in the Union Territory. While 123 copies of the first book were supplied to school libraries in Jammu, Ramban and Udhampur districts, 128 copies of the second were supplied in Jammu and Baramulla districts.
The suspended officials are Fazil Imran Saddiqui, Coordinator Library, Samagra Shiksha; Gurjeet Singh, Assistant Coordinator; Sanjeev Sharma, Principal, Government Higher Secondary School, Kore Pannu in Kathua; Shazia Kouser, Academic Officer, SCERT, Jammu; Imtiyaz Ahmad Mir, Lecturer, Boys Higher Secondary School, Wathoora, Budgam; Niranjan Sharma, Lecturer, GHSS, Badhat in Kishtwar; Renu Mengi, Lecturer, DIET, Jammu; and Rajmohini, Lecturer, GGHSS, Poonch.
During suspension, these officials will remain attached with the Administrative Department (School Education Department), the order said.
The government has also set up a high-level inquiry headed by Financial Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary Ashwani Kumar, who has 30 days to submit a report.
The contractual employee whose services were terminated was Sheikh Suheel Ahmad, a computer assistant, assisting the coordinator, library.
Gurjeet Singh, one of the suspended officials, denied having anything to do with the books, saying he was “merely a teacher”. “I was asked by the authorities to assist the library coordinator by getting him material like stationery. I know nothing about the contents of the book,” he said.
Meanwhile, Oberoi Book Service, Jammu, said ‘Personalities and Legends of Jammu and Kashmir’ “was already published by a Delhi-based publication house in 2017”. Its proprietor too said he was “unaware of the contents of the book”.
“We approached the publishers to allow us to print it under our name,” proprietor Inder Pal Singh told The Indian Express. “The publishing house reprinted copies of the book under our name in 2024 and sent those to us for Samagra Shiksha.”
What the books said
One of the books purportedly calls Maqbool Bhat, co-founder of the separatist Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front who was hanged in Tihar Jail on two murder charges, ‘shaheed’ (martyr), adding that “the early years of Maqbool Butt’s life, like thousands of other Kashmiri children were shaped by the harsh living conditions that characterised the life of peasants at this juncture of Kashmir history. It was the feudal system in Maharaja’s Kashmir that forced Maqbool Butt to participate in the first political action in his life-long struggle against suppression, occupation and for equality, freedom and social justice”. It further purportedly describes his exfiltration to Pakistan as “the journey on that road to great sacrifice”.
In another chapter on Hashim Qureshi, who hijacked an Indian Airlines plane flying from Srinagar to Lahore in 1971, the book purportedly describes Maqbool Bhat as “the founding father of Kashmir’s separatist movement sponsored by Pakistan and he wanted to highlight the Kashmir issue internationally. He masterminded the idea of a hijacking. He chose Hashim Qureshi who along with his cousin Ashraf Qureshi hijacked the Indian Airlines plane on 30 January 1971. Hashim Qureshi was 17-year-old”.
About Hashim Qureshi, the book purportedly says, “is a pro-Pakistan Kashmiri separatist leader and one of the founding members of the JKLF”. It goes on to say that Qureshi is “now chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Democratic Liberation Front, one of the main Kashmiri separatist political organisations which strives to find a political solution to the Kashmir issue through peaceful and political activities”.
It purportedly describes separatist political leader and Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party founder-president Shabir Shah as “one of the highest profile campaigners for Kashmiri independence who campaigned for self-determination in Kashmir since late 1960 and had spent much of his life in Indian jails”.
It purportedly also has a chapter on another separatist leader, Masarat Alam Bhat. It purportedly says Bhat “is currently general secretary of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and is likely to head him as the Hurriyat head. He played a significant role in the 2010 stone-pelting rallies which broke out against the Machil encounter carried out by the Indian Army in Kashmir. To stop such incidences, Masrat Alam has been detained by the government numerous times. Later, the government has booked Masrat Alam in 27 criminal cases, but in most of these, he has either been exonerated or bailed out by the court’’.
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