The Jammu and Kashmir administration said on Tuesday, 24 May, that police medals will no longer have the embossed image of National Conference founder and first elected Chief Minister of erstwhile J&K state, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who played a key role in Kashmir's accession to India following the partition.
Following this year, the J&K police medals for both gallantry and meritorious service will have the embossed image of the national emblem.
According to a report by The Indian Express, an order issued by J&K’s Additional Chief Secretary, Home, RK Goyal, read:
“It is hereby ordered that in modification to Para 4 of the Jammu & Kashmir Police Medal Scheme, the ‘Sher-i-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’ embossed on one side of the medal shall be replaced with ‘the National Emblem of the Government of India’."
Previously called the ‘Sher-i-Kashmir,’ the medal has also been renamed as the Jammu and Kashmir Police medal.
National Conference Condemns the Decision
National Conference’s Jammu province President Rattan Lal Gupta condemned the decision and said that the government is attempting to erase the history and identity of the erstwhile state. He said that Sheikh Abdullah was the first Muslim in Jammu and Kashmir who rejected Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s two-nation theory and sided with India.
Gupta said that Sheikh Abdullah was the first to introduce land reforms by giving land to the tiller and abolished moneylending.
He stressed that Abdullah’s contribution has been written in golden letters in the history of both the province and the nation, reported The Indian Express.
(With inputs from The Indian Express.)
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