| Gupkar Grotesque! Mehbooba takes jibe at Abdullahs | | ‘Had I cut a deal with Centre, I would have been out very early then’ | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 21: Amid the unusual bonhomie being exhibited by the Kashmir centric mainstream political groups at present, PDP president in an indirect attack at other PAGD leaders has stated those released prior to her may have cut a deal with the Government of India.
I her first ever TV interview after her release on October 14, this year, when Mehbooba was asked whether she cracked any deal with the Central Government for her release, she said that if she would have cracked any deal with Delhi she would have been set free from detention much earlier.
Such a statement is being viewed as a direct hint towards Abdullahs who were released seven months before Mehbooba. “If I would have cut a deal with the Centre, I would not have been in detention for 14 months. I would have been out very early then,” Mehbooba said.
Meanwhile, what has raised many eye brows is the fact that there are speculations are already rife that NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah and party’s Vice President Omar Abdullah who were released in March had possibly held confabulations with the Central Government ahead of their release.
On March 13, this year, Dr Farooq Abdullah was released after seven months of captivity. Flanked by his wife and younger daughter, Farooq addressed media persons in his fortified bungalow in Srinagar which government till then had turned into a sub-jail.
This 81- year old veteran politician thanked his family and friends for all the support he got during the period of incarceration. However, he surprisingly spoke no word on Article 370 abrogation. When he asked about the Government of India’s decision of stripping Jammu and Kashmir of all its special privileges, Abdullah had meticulously ducked the question, telling journalists that he would respond at an appropriate time.
Next day, on March 14, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad met the NC president at the latter’s home. Both came out together to address the media. Azad wanted the release of the entire political leadership, restoration of statehood, and initiation of the political process. Abdullah was standing right next to Azad. And he wanted nothing. It was all but his silence that dominated the entire scenario that day.
10 days later, Abdullah’s son and NC’s vice president Omar Abdullah was released. He too disappointed the byte hungry media men who cornered him from all sides to know his views on Article 370 abrogation. Omar rather wanted people to follow COVID-19 guidelines and told media that in the middle of the pandemic, his views on scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status carry no significance.
However, what raised the eyebrows about a possible secret deal that NC might have entered into with GOI was a write-up by Omar Abdullah’s political advisor, Tanvir Sadiq in a local daily. “As a starting point for this, let all political prisoners arrested post-August 5 be released before Eid, revisit the domicile law and lift all curbs on the internet and telecommunication and let the end of the pandemic and the beginning of the political process be run along parallel lines. Kashmir, its people, and the country need this,” Tanvir wrote.
Party’s chief spokesman and a prominent Shia leader Aga Ruhullah Mehdi was first to raise the voice, terming party’s core ideology and its present stand on Kashmir’s special status frighteningly misplaced.
“‘Revisit’ domicile law? Lift curbs on Internet? …If I am not reading wrong, you are basically asking for 4G and THEIR ‘PERMISSION’ to let us start the political process? & then all is well?”
“What is a political process for you? Only an election? If we go with a reason and stand our course, even being detained is a part of the political process. Sorry, it’s insulting to ask them to ‘let us’,” Mehdi had said. |
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