Azad and Sonia accuse each other of protecting terrorists
Jammu and Kashmir’s political scenario is changing. And it is changing very fast. On the one hand, former J&K CM Ghulam Nabi Azad, who quit Congress months ago and founded Democratic Azad Party (DAP) in Jammu, has accused Sonia Gandhi and Congress of protecting ministers, legislators, and politicians of having links with terrorists when it was in power (2004-2014). On the other hand, the Sonia Congress took on Azad for protecting his ministers, legislators, and politicians, who had links with terrorists.
Only on December 12, Azad, who himself had become RS MP in February 2015 with the support of the terrorists’ supporters like independent MLA Engineer Rashid, made a startling revelation that he as J&K CM sent a list of politicians with terrorists’ links to PM Manmohan Singh and HM Shivraj Patil, but they took no action against them. Azad was J&K CM between November 2005 and July 2008. Stung by what Azad revealed, the Sonia Congress through its JKPCC chief, Vikar Rasool, hit back on December 19 and called Azad’s bluff. Launching a blistering attack on Azad, the Sonia Congress urged the Narendra Modi government to snatch the Padma Award from him.
What exactly did Sonia Congress say? It said: “If there were people in his cabinet who were involved in militancy if his MLAs were involved in militancy, why did he not take action against them? Why did you not take action? You are the biggest traitor. You were the Home Minister as well as Chairman of the Unified Headquarters…It means he compromised national security and such a person doesn’t deserve Padma Award…I demand that the President of India should strip him of the Padma Award and initiate action against him”.
But much to the chagrin of the Sonia Congress’s Vikar Rasool, two former ministers – Mula Ram and Yogesh Sawhney – and JKPCC’s chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma (all Sonia Gandhi-Rahul Gandhi-Priyanka Gandhi loyalists), instead of targeting Azad, boycotted the meeting called by Rasool to “review the arrangements in connection with the impending ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra in J&K’ and targeted Rasool without mincing words. “Instead of strengthening the Congress, the JKPCC chief is only weakening it and tarnishing the image of the party and it has become difficult for them to face the public and answer the questions they put as he (Rasool) has utterly failed to establish that he has no links with terrorists,” they said.
And at a time when Azad and the Sonia Congress were tearing into each other and senior Congress leaders were exposing JKPCC chief Rasool, a big political explosion took place in the DAP. Azad was expelled from the DAP by former Speaker and Dy CM Tara Chand, former minister Manohar Lal Sharma and former MLA Balwan Singh for what he called “anti-party activities”. It all happened in a dramatic manner. The development surprised many. The reason is Chand, Sharma, and Singh had a very long association with Azad and they were considered hardcore supporters of Azad. Wounded as they were, Chand and Sharma attacked Azad from the right and left and asserted that “they are what they are not because of Azad but because of the people”.
Chand even went to the extent of bemoaning that he committed the biggest blunder by joining the DAP and accusing Azad of dancing to the tunes of the BJP. “Azad is playing the BJP game. He formed the DAP to divide the secular votes and help the BJP. The DAP is the BJP’s B-team and its sole objective is to weaken secular forces in J&K,” he, inter-alia, said. As was expected, the DAP reacted and asserted that “Tara Chand, Manohar Lal Sharma, and Balwan Singh had been persuading Azad for three years to snap ties with the Sonia Congress and establish his own party in J&K”.
Farooq tears into Nehru and hails Modi
UT of J&K witnessed political explosions not only in the DAP — which is yet to be registered with the ECI — and in the Sonia Congress. The pro-autonomy National Conference (NC) also sprung a big surprise on December 23. It was none other than its party president and former J&K CM Farooq Abdullah, who said certain things no one had ever expected, and that, too, at a time when almost all the opposition parties, especially the Sonia Congress, have upped their ante and opposed PM Narendra Modi’s China policy.
It would be only desirable to quote some relevant portions from what Farooq Abdullah said about JL Nehru’s China policy and Narendra Modi’s China policy. Such an approach may help put things in perspective. Reflecting on the changes in India’s China policy and the present status of PM Modi in the comity of developed nations, especially the US and Russia, Farooq Abdullah said that gone are the days when “we (under Nehru) used to chant Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai by taking out Chinese and Indian flags, but no one knew that they would betray us in Panchsheel and China would annex a big chunk of Ladakh’s territory”.
“Today’s India is not the India of 1962. That era is gone. Today, we are not wearing bangles…The army is standing to save the country by giving their lives on the border…Today, we are all ready to attack China and if China thinks that we are weak, then it is their misunderstanding…G20’s presidency right now is with India. I believe PM (Modi) could help resolve many issues and he can also play an important role in ending the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war because he has good relations both with US and Russia,” Farooq Abdullah also said while taking a dig at China.
Significantly, earlier, Farooq Abdullah had, like the Congress and other opposition parties, criticized the Modi government’s China policy and asked it to resolve Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh. On December 9, the Chinese troops tried to breach the LAC and the Indian troops swung into action. The result was a clash. The Chinese troops had to retreat as the Indian troops retaliated in a big way.
Notwithstanding the fact that Farooq Abdullah is known for shifting stance and that he is canny, un-Indian, undependable, and unscrupulous, still what he said has led many to term it as “big news” and also believe that the power-hungry Abdullahs might befriend the ruling BJP to recapture the state power. The BJP would commit political hara-kiri, hurt the nation and destroy the Hindu-majority Jammu province if it trusts them, contest the assembly elections in alliance with them and form a coalition government with them in the sensitive and strategic UT of J&K like it did in 2015, when it handed over the state power to hardcore separatist Muftis to enjoy some loaves and fishes of office.
As for the explosions in the Sonia Congress and the DAP, both are unpopular and both, like other Kashmiri parties, including National Conference, People’s Democratic Party, J&K Apni Party, People’s Conference, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Awami National Conference, are parties which are opposed tooth and nail by almost all the Hindus for obvious reasons. They have little or no say in the political arena of Jammu province.
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2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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It is a classic case of thieves falling apart even before fully realizing the gains of the loot. Every member of the gang ( The Abdullas, Muftis, and even some ICS type Congressi Pandits) that stole the lucrative pie of Kashmir, stolen from the Indian nation under 370 & 35A wanted the Pie for himself and were unable to equitably share the loot. Until 2014 the successive administration at the center ensured that enough time was given to the distribution without upsetting the apple cart. If successful it would have been the biggest safe heaven for the scoundrels of the world even bigger and more secure than UK.
But the