Ghulam Nabi Azad makes startling revelations about the ‘politician-terrorist nexus’
On December 13, 2022, former J&K CM Ghulam Nabi Azad made startling disclosures during an interview with the national news channel Times Now and also spoke about the nature of relations between India and Pakistan. Azad quit the Congress party only recently and founded in Jammu his own party, Democratic Azad Party (DAP), to provide what he called a “credible alternative” to the people of J&K.
What did Azad reveal? Making startling revelations, he, among other things, said: “When I was the chief minister in the coalition government in J&K, I received reports about the links of some mainstream political leaders with the militant outfits. ‘Since I do not believe in hearsay, I tried to gather all the concrete proofs and then sent a detailed report to the then prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and the then home minister, Shivraj Patil. But unfortunately, there was no action”.
When asked whether it was due to the soft policy of the then Congress government at the Centre towards militants, Azad said: “He would not say that it was due to the soft stance of the then government but there were some mainstream leaders acting as ‘double cross’. They had links with the terror outfits and at the same time were befooling New Delhi by projecting themselves as great nationalists and mainstream leaders. I don’t know when such people will meet their fate”.
The questions to be asked to Azad are many and he has to answer each and every question to clear all the cobwebs of confusion and let the nation know the whole truth. The questions are:
- Why he took 15 long years to reveal what he revealed?
- What was the immediate provocation that made him disclose what he wrote to the Congress-led ragtag UPA government as J&K CM?
- Why didn’t he put in the public domain the whole information about the political leaders having links with terrorists?
- Why didn’t he tell the Times Now the names of all those politicians, including ministers in his own coalition government, who, in collaboration with terrorists, were involved in subversive and break-India activities?
- What baneful influence the politician-terrorist nexus had on the state polity and to what extent this ugly nexus hurt the national cause in this sensitive and strategic part of the country?
- Why didn’t Azad as J&K CM and home minister order the law enforcing agency to book the anti-state politicians, including ministers, to produce a moral effect?
- Did he make these dumbfounding revelations to hoodwink and mislead the people of J&K UT in general and the nationalistic people of Jammu province in particular for vote politics or did he seek to create a narrative that his newly-founded outfit alone could lead the people of J&K UT aright and hand down a government that delivers?
These are only some of the questions which warrant definite answers and Azad alone can answer these questions because he knows all the details. Any failure on his part to do so would simply mean that his intentions were not pious and that he is only playing a dubious political game for reasons best known to him.
However, it is imperative to lay bare the disparities between what he wrote to PM Manmohan Singh and HM Shivraj Patil and what he himself did in February 2015 to get terrorists’ support to win the Rajya Sabha election from J&K. It bears recalling that in order to get Azad elected to the Rajya Sabha, five Congress MLAs – G M Saroori, Vikar Rasool, Haji Rashid, Mohammad Amin Bhat, and Gulzar Wani – “bowed down” before an independent MLA from Langate (Kashmir) Engineer Rashid, a known separatist and hardcore supporter of terrorists. They accepted all his conditions for his support. The Congress legislators admitted that “their government had committed a ‘mistake’ by not allowing (terrorist) Afzal Guru to meet his family before his execution to meet a primary condition set down by Rashid”. “The views of Rashid with respect to allowing the last meeting to the kith and kin of Afzal Guru are genuine and based on humanitarian values and the same was a mistake”, the statement issued by the Congress legislators said. Afzal Guru was convicted for his role in the December 13, 2001, Parliament terror attack. His body was buried in the premises of Tihar jail, Delhi.
Azad on the nature of relations between India and Pakistan
All this should expose the double-speak of Azad and establish that he let down the state just to win the RS election. This is one part of the story. The other part of the story would also expose him and prove that his view on J&K was no different from that of late Mufti Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti, founders of the essentially separatist outfit, People’s Democratic Party (PDP). During the interview, Azad told the interviewer that “India’s relations with Pakistan can’t improve till Army in Pakistan rules the roost”. “The prime minister or president in Pakistan has to follow the dictates of the Pakistani army, this is an open truth. In fact, the Pakistani army is a big obstacle in improving relations between Pakistan and India…Right from Nehru to Vajpayee, and even Narendra Modi, took the lead and tried to improve relations with Pakistan. But the result is in front of all of you. The army of that country does not want peace in the region due to its own vested interests…Good relations with the neighbours, whether it is Pakistan or China, are good for us as well as those countries,” Azad maintained.
While making these comments, Azad didn’t tell his interviewer that he, like the Muftis, was also an ardent believer in the PDP’s self-rule doctrine – Indo-Pak joint-control over J&K. I am not exaggerating. I am only making a statement of facts. He, on March 29, 2006, suggested at the University of Jammu that there should be “joint-control of India and Pakistan over the J&K’s waters, power projects, agriculture, sericulture, tourism, forestry, and environment”. He was of the view that such a joint control would help harmonize Indo-Pak relations.
And what about the three round table conferences on the political future of J&K held in 2006-2007 at the behest of Azad? Two were held at the official residence of PM Manmohan Singh (and this writer was also one of the delegates) and one at Srinagar. That the intentions of the UPA government were sinister had become clear in the first round table conference itself on February 25, 2006. That day, PM Manmohan Singh suggested that “there is the need to evolve a consensus on the issues of self-rule and autonomy within the vast flexibilities provided by the Indian Constitution”. The third and the last round table conference whose proceedings were anchored by Azad adopted highly unsettling and anti-state reports, including the one submitted by former vice-president Hamid Ansari, despite opposition from the integrationists, including this writer. (On April 28, 2007, The Hindu wrote the lead editorial (“Case for Consensus”) and Praveen Swami wrote the lead article (“The bits and pieces of a consensus”) on my role in the third round table conference.)
But these are only two instances that only serve to demonstrate Azad’s double-speak, political dishonesty, and naked opportunism. Some of the other instances include the defeat of India-centric private members’ bills and the adoption of private members’ bill which only promoted separatism and communalism. It all happened in 2007 under the very nose of CM Azad in the Legislative Assembly. So much so, his government rejected in no time the private members’ bills on secularism and the national flag. Remember, Azad as CM further strengthened the stranglehold of Kashmir on Jammu, pit Muslims against Hindus by snatching Baltal land from Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, and caused irreparable damage to Jammu province.
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
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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What was the idea behind the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Hindus from Kashmir?
No political dispensation in J&K tried to curb it, but was in fact conniving with and protecting the perpetrator. Until the abrogation of 370 & 35A the endeavor and hope was to have Kashmir fully under the control of the Kashmir based political parties with extracting funds from the Indian Tax payers, obviously with no questions asked, The use of Pakistan was only a convenient tool to ensure a thorough cleansing with deniability and for pressuring Delhi. This was the inclusive model to get a support of a specific vote bank in rest of the country. If this were to succeed all the ON BAIL high, rich and mighty would have been granted safe passage and protection from Indian laws in Kashmir. All congress, NC & PDP governments were working in fact to a long term design, even the coalition of BJP & PDP was done in the hope of roping in the BJP but to the bad luck of PDP, BJP succeeded in getting all the inside information before dumping PDP and eventually bringing to an end the 70 year Transient and temporary provision in the constitution. The systematic destruction of the Justice delivery system over past 70 years is all part of the inclusive model, to keep the thieves within.