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| Taj represents NC in state Congress? | | Ridiculing JKPCC Chief | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Nov 16: The other day, Minister for Irrigation and Flood Control, who is considered a senior leader in the state Congress, Taj Mohi-ud-Din, not only lambasted another senior Congress leader and Chairman of Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Council, Amrit Malhotra, for constituting a house committee to look into the serious land grabbing charges against him, but also demonstrated his loyalty to NC working president and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, saying he was duty-bound to strengthen Omar Abdullah and the rag-tag coalition government that he has been unsuccessfully heading since January 5 , 2009. Amrit Malhotra is Soz’s man.
"I am strengthening the Chief Minister on the direction of (Congress) high command (read AICC president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and her son and all-in-all in the Congress party Rahul Gandhi)," he was quoted as saying while addressing an out-and-out anti-Malhotra press conference in Jammu on Wednesday. By attacking Malhotra, Taj, in effect, attacked JKPCC president Saif-ud-Din Soz from right and left and left none in any doubt that he doesn't consider him as party chief. Besides, by making a startling revelation that he had been strengthening the NC working president Chief Minister Omar Abdullah at the behest of the Congress high command, he left none in doubt that it is Omar Abdullah, and not Saif-ud-Din Soz, who matters at 10 Janpath, the official residence of Sonia Gandhi, who, along with her son Rahul Gandhi, controls both the Government and the party. Rahul Gandhi was yesterday made all-in-all in the party. It is too well-known that his relations with Omar Abdullah are more than cordial.
The manner in which Taj extended his unflinching support to Omar Abdullah and lambasted Malhotra was a clear indication that he is interested more in strengthening the NC rather than the Congress party to which he technically belongs and that he practically represents the NC in the Congress party. And it was not the first occasion when Taj openly supported Omar Abdullah and embarrassed Soz. He has been siding with Omar Abdullah and the NC and embarrassing Soz, particularly since June 2011, when certain Congress leaders, especially those belonging to the Valley, started demanding rotational Chief Minister. Taj had consistently maintained that there would be no rotational Chief Minister, that Omar Abdullah would complete a full term of six years and that he had been informed to that effect by the party high command. His statements had irked many Congressmen, with some of them even demanding disciplinary action against Taj. The stand of Soz on the issue was that it was for the party high command to take the final call and clinch the issue. Soz did in his heart of hearts supported the idea of rotational Chief Minister and that was the reason he never discouraged the votaries of rotational chief minister, including Congress veteran and former Deputy Chief minister Mangat Ram Sharma.
That the JKPCC has not reacted this way or that to what aggressive Taj publicly said is an indication that the former has neither the will nor the capacity to enforce discipline and that it is free for all in the party. Indeed, it is advantage to Omar Abdullah, his NC and his government and Taj, who is allegedly involved in land and other scams. As for Soz, less said the better. Suffice it to say that he has allowed himself to be ridiculed by the likes of Taj. |
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