POLITICS ON HOLIDAYS: Holiday on Sheikh’s birthday denied; retained for Maharaja

Srinagar: In a veritable embarrassment for the National Conference (NC) government in Jammu and Kashmir, and contrary to the demands and commitments of a number of the ruling party leaders, there will be no gazetted holiday on the birth anniversary of the party founder and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s grandfather Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah on 5 December 2025.
On the other hand, like in the last couple of years, a public holiday on the birth anniversary of the Dogra monarch, Maharaja Hari Singh, has been retained for 23 September 2025, in the current year’s Government calendar in the Union Territory.
Twenty-eight days of public holiday have been declared in the Government calendar issued vide the General Administration Department’s Order No: 2193-JK(GAD) of 2024 dated 29-12-2024. According to official sources, GAD falls among the portfolios of none other than the Chief Minister. The order, issued by the new Commissioner-Secretary GAD, M Raju, says that the same has been issued under the orders of the Lieutenant Governor.
Official sources maintained that currently it was the prerogative of the LG to initiate, approve and issue such an order. “Until the Rules of Business are amended and notified, such authority lies with the Honourable LG. Powers could shift to the CM only when a proposed amendment will be positively considered and approved by the HLG”, said a senior bureaucratic source.
The ruling NC and the opposition BJP— as also the regions of Kashmir and Jammu— have remained polarised on the issues of the holidays on the birth anniversaries of Maharaja Hari Singh and Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.
For the first time after 1947, the Government in 2020 revoked the holiday of the “Martyrs Day” of 13 July after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. Since 1948, the 13th of July was observed as a public holiday to commemorate the 31 Kashmiri civilians who had been killed in the firing of Maharaja Hari Singh’s troops on this day in 1931.
In 2020, a year after the abrogation of Article 370, withdrawal of the erstwhile State’s Statehood and special status and bifurcation into the two separate UTs of J&K and Ladakh, the LG’s dispensation in the President’s Rule revoked the gazetted holiday on the NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s birth anniversary of 5 December.
On the other hand, in the year 2022, the LG’s government declared 23 September as a public holiday on the birth anniversary of the Dogra monarch, Maharaja Hari Singh, under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, (Central Act 26 of 1881) in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. In Jammu, a section of the politicians alongside a section of the civil society, mainly those aligned with the BJP, had been demanding a public holiday on the birth anniversary of the Maharaja, asserting that the monarch had been a representation of the Dogra identity.
From 1931 to 1947, the Kashmir-based National Conference under the leadership of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, had spearheaded a movement for the end of the Dogra monarchy and its replacement by a democratic government. Sheikh and his colleagues remained incarcerated for several years till 1947 when the Pakistani tribal raiders attacked Jammu and Kashmir and the popular Kashmir leader was released. Sheikh was initially appointed as a Chief Administrator under Maharaja but later sworn in as Prime Minister in 1951.
While the Maharaja signed J&K’s accession to India in the wake of the raiders’ attack on 26 October 1947, the Indian Army, backed by Sheikh Abdullah’s militia and civil society, repulsed the attack in November 1947. The J&K Constituent Assembly adopted the State’s Constitution in 1957. The first Assembly elections were held in the same year—four years after Sheikh himself had been deposed as Prime Minister by the Indian Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru and replaced by his colleague Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad.
Sheikh led a separatist movement with the slogan of Plebiscite for 22 years after his arrest in August 1953. In February 1975, he returned to the mainstream politics as Chief Minister and swept the Assembly elections of 1977.
Interestingly, Maharaja Hari Singh’s grandson and Dr Karan Singh’s son Ajatshatru Singh won the Assembly elections in 1996 and was inducted as Minister of Tourism in the NC government of Dr Farooq Abdullah. Subsequently, years later he resigned and joined the BJP. While his father Dr Karan Singh is still in the Congress—though he has disassociated himself from active politics—Ajatshatru’s brother Vikramaditya Singh has also joined the BJP. For years, he remained associated with his father’s Congress party and also contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Jammu unsuccessfully.
After serving as “Sadr-e-Riyasat” (equivalent to Governor” for some years, Dr Karan Singh subsequently joined the Congress party. He was elected as a member of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for several terms. He also functioned as a Union Minister with different portfolios. Both his sons functioned as Members of Legislative Council in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Government calendar of 2025 celebrates the region’s cultural and religious diversity, featuring holidays such as Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s Birthday (Jan 6), Republic Day (Jan 26), Eid-ul-Fitr (March 31), Independence Day (Aug 15), and Diwali (Oct 21). While the calendar honours key historical figures like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Maharaja Hari Singh, the absence of Sheikh Abdullah’s Birthday and Martyrs’ Day remains a contentious issue.
Earlier this month, Deputy chief minister Surinder Choudhary had said that the Omar Abdullah government would soon reinstate public holiday on the birth anniversary of late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, on 5 December. The NC General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar had also pitched for reinstating the same as a public holiday.
The Omar Abdullah government had reportedly submitted the proposal of reinstating 5 December 2025 as a public holiday which appears to have been rejected.

Updated On 12/30/2024 3:22:19 AM