Sheikh Nazir Ahmad, ruling NCs secretary general who holds all the secrets of the party and the family is not doing well for a long time. So last month, the party took a decision of appointing Dr Mustafa Kamal as the chief spokesman and additional secretary general of the party. Apparently, the decision was aimed at reducing the load on Nazir and retaining the control within the family.
But the decision seemed short lived. Within five weeks, Dr Farooq Abdullah, the president of the party had to issue a statement asking Kamal, his younger brother to put in his papers.
The appointment had come at a very crucial juncture of the coalition and politics of the state. While Omar Abdullah had publicly initiated the partial revocation of the AFSPA (he later reduced it to his intention), certain restive elements in the Congress had upped the ante over their term of the coalition leadership at the end of the three year of alliance’s six year term.
Kamal as Chief Spokesman of the party did what the situation demanded. Apparently he made his own judgments and certain leaders in the NC think some of party’s stalwarts were actually advising him as well.
Responding to the issues raked up history and skipped the larger contemporary realities in which his party was ruling on the Congress support. To a larger extent, it filled the belly of the party workers who, for a long time, were feeling hungry for the right noises. Whether or not, it helped the party on long-term basis, the statements did fetch the party front pages for free.
Kamal hit the army by linking the recent grenade attacks to the vested interests in the armed forces for status quo on AFSPA. It was the first major blow to the party and both father and son publicly acknowledged the embarrassment. This statement that Dr Abdullah rang Kamal and suggested him to mend his ways in talking his heart out. But Kamal continued.
Congress president Prof Saifud Din Soz stated that even Rahul Gandhi was not happy with the governance that Omar is providing to J&K. “Rahul ji’s role is to run Congress party and not the state government,” Kamal was quoted saying. “What has Rahul’s happiness or unhappiness to do with the functioning of the state government?”
Asked if Congress decided to withdraw support, Kamal said: “If tomorrow MamtaBanarjee withdraws support to central government, what will happen. In politics anything is possible.” Many think, this statement sealed the fate of Kamal as the chief spokesman.
