The last surviving member of constituent assembly of J&K, comrade Krishan Dev Sethi, breathed his last at his ancestral home in Dalpatian Mohallah, Jammu, Thursday morning. He was 93.
Sethi was born on November 30, 1927, in Mirpur, in then undivided Jammu & Kashmir. He is survived by his wife Kanta Sethi, son Anchal Sethi (Law Secretary, J&K Government), and daughter Dr Poonam Sethi.
KD Sethi died after prolonged illness at his home at 4 am. The last rites of the popular communist leader were performed at Jogi Gate, Jammu, which was attended by large numbers of people from all sections of society, trade union leaders, and communists from across the country, Government officials, politicians and members of civil society.
Prominent among those who attended the cremations of KD Sethi included former Chief Minister and PDP President Mehbooba Mufti, Advisor Farooq Khan, J&K Public Service Commission Chairman BR Sharma, National Conference Provincial President Devender Singh Rana, CPI (M) senior leader Mohammad Yousaf Tarigami, J&K BJP President Ravinder Raina, BJP senior leader Sat Pal, BJP senior leader Ashok Khajuria, Justice DS Thakur, several judges of J&K High Court and others officials.
Comrade Sethi alongwith his family migrated to Jammu from Mirpur in 1947-48 and settled at Dalpatian Mohallah.
He was the last surviving constituent assembly member of J&K. The constituent assembly dissolved itself in January 1957 after passing the J&K Constitution.
His political career started before 1947 when he was 15 years old and still in school in Mirpur. For his activism against the then ruler and exploitation of people, he was jailed in Mirpur jail. He was the friend and colleague of Raja Mohammed Akbar Khan of Mirpur, Maulana Abdullah, Haji Abdur Rehman and Haji Wahab-ud-Din.
He did his masters in Persian when he was in jail at Mirpur. Allah Rakha Sagar and Choudhary Ghulam Abbas were his fellow inmates in Kathua jail when he was shifted there before 1947.
Initially, he started writing articles and editing Urdu newspaper Jaddojihad (struggle), and then he was also a regular contributor for Kashmir Uzma.
Sethi’s ‘Yaad-e-Rafta’ in Urdu language is an authentic document on the contemporary politics of J&K and two of his volumes have already been published.
He was fond of reading newspapers every morning and analyzing the political situation of J&K. Known as the living history of Kashmir, Sethi during his lifetime fought for equal rights for all, against communal elements, extremism and fought for the poor people.
He was a popular communist leader not only in both parts of J&K, but also in Punjab and Haryana, according to prominent journalist and writer Sayeed Hussain Malik.
He worked with Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah as first General Secretary of the National Conference from Jammu Province. He also participated in the first annual session of the National Conference at Baramulla in 1940.
Later, he parted ways from the National Conference in 1953 and formed Democratic National Conference of which he became General Secretary, and Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq, Mir Qasim, and Girdhari Lal Dogra also joined him which had 21 opposition members of legislative assembly in 1957. KD Sethi represented Nowshera assembly constituency as MLA. He also worked closely with Sardar Budh Singh, Maulana Abdullah and other political personalities.
He was jailed several times for nearly 3 years during the Quit Kashmir Movement. In 1975, when Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah returned to power, Sethi declined to accept his offer to join his Government as Minister. In the 1960s, Sethi went underground when he advocated dialogue during war between India and China. He was more inclined to communist ideology being an admirer of Marxism-Leninism. He was the epitome of knowledge and was considered as the living history of J&K who stood for unity and brotherhood in society.
During the India-Pakistan partition in 1947, when the Indian continent witnessed bloodshed, Sethi opposed communal violence and migration of Muslims out of Jammu to Pakistan amid communal frenzy while strongly advocating peace, rehabilitation of people and communal harmony.
Sethi was the close associate of intellectual and scholar of five languages Ved Pal Deep Ji as well as Low Paid Employees President, J&K, Abdul Majid Khan.
Sethi had friendship with Founding Editor of Kashmir Times Ved Bhasin, Om Saraf, Balraj Puri and others who worked for socialism and fought communalism promoting peace in J&K. Sethi strongly advocated dialogue on Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
Sethi in his lifetime has travelled to Soviet Union, China, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland and he also met world leaders like Mao Zedong, Leonid Melnikov and others.