Srinagar, June 13 -- By Hamid Rather

The most revealing aspect of the recently resurfaced interview of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah is not the explanation it contains. The revelation lies in the fact that Kashmiris are hearing it only now.

Few political decisions in modern Kashmir have generated as much controversy as Abdullah's 1939 decision to transform the Muslim Conference into the National Conference.

Critics spent decades portraying that move as a retreat from Muslim political identity.

The accusation fuelled election campaigns, public meetings, newspaper columns and drawing-room discourses.

It became one of the most enduring criticisms of the man who dominated twentieth-century Kashmiri politics.

Many Kashmiris grew up hearing th...