by Syed Shadab Ali Gillani
SRINAGAR: The general election is approaching and every day is going to be interesting with Jammu and Kashmir’s political class exploding with the information they stored for the last five years. It was Ghulam Nabi Azad versus JKNC today.
Azad told India Today that Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah were making efforts to get into an alliance with the BJP in 2014. This is in tune with Omar’s erstwhile aides, Junaid Azim Muttu and Devinder Singh Rana have been asserting. Azad had accused the father-son of playing a “double game”. He said Abdullah Sr had hinted at joining the BJP-led NDA in the future, later denied by Omar Abdullah.
“What Farooq told India Today wasn’t unintentional. Farooq and Omar are trying to appease both the government and the opposition,” said Azad.
In his interview, Azad said Dr Farooq and Omar have always been seeking appointments during late night – at 11 or 12 pm. “Why late night? It makes things suspicious,” he claimed. “They are dubbing every party in Jammu and Kashmir as BJP parties but (personally) they go to temple for puja. I am most secular in India but I retain by faith. I will not go to a temple for seeking Hindu votes.”
Besides, Azad revealed in the interview that there is an impression in Delhi that Abdullahs’ suggested they should be taken in custody at the time of reading down of special status of Jammu and Kashmir so that they will not have to react. “Article 370 was revoked two days after the meeting of JKNC leaders in Delhi, and there was a notion and speculation among many people in Delhi that they were consulted before, and they told them to keep them in jail or under house arrest so that they would be away from taking any public positions,” Azad claimed. “It was the gossip at that time in Delhi; I am not saying this with sureness, but the notion was there.”
“If I have to meet PM Modi or Union Home Minister Amit Shah, I will meet them during the day, why should I meet them at night? What is the reason that he has thought of defaming Farooq Abdullah?” Abdullah senior said in reaction. “When no one wanted to give him Rajya Sabha seat, I was the one who gave him Rajya Sabha seat. But today he is saying all this. He should tell the names of his agents who are sitting at the residence of PM and Union Home Minister. He should tell people so that they can understand the truth.”
PHOTO BY BILAL BAHADUR
However, the serious attack came from none other than Omar Abdullah. “Wah bhai wah Ghulam Nabi Azad, so much bile today,” Omar wrote on twitter, now X. “Where is the Ghulam that was asking us for Rajya Sabha seats in J&K as recently as 2015?”.
On Azad’s revelation that Abdullah knew that the Article 370 was abrogated in consultation with them, Omar hit Azad in too many words. “Abdullahs knew about 370′ yet we were detained for more than eight months including under PSA & you were free, the only ex CM in J&K free after 5th Aug.,” Omar wrote. “’Abdullahs meet secretly’ yet my father is the one thrown out of his Govt house when he wasn’t MP & you are allowed to keep your ministerial bungalow? ‘Abdullahs say one thing in Kashmir & another in Delhi’ yet PM cries for you in Rajya Sabha & criticizes us in every speech. Let’s not forget the Padma award for which you agreed to leave Congress & help BJP in Chenab valley. “Who is azad & who is ghulam, time will tell & people will decide.”
