Feb 15th - J&K Constituent Assembly unanimously ratified the state's accession to India

Feburary 15th marks the J&K Constituent Assembly's unanimous ratification of the state's accession to India

Totally forgotten was that on this very day, 51 years earlier, the Jammu & Kashmir Constituent Assembly unanimously ratified the state's accession to India. Thus, February 15, 2001 marks the 51st anniversary of the day that witnessed J&K's accession to India being signed, sealed and delivered -- not by a Hindu maharaja ruling over a population of which 77 percent were Muslims, but by a democratically elected constitutional body all of whose 75 members were die-hard followers of a colossal Muslim leader called Sheikh Abdullah.

- Murali