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| Guru's execution: Omar in trouble for right stand on national issue | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 11: Notwithstanding some radical change in his attitude towards the UPA Government following the negative response the Afzal Guru's February 8 hanging in high security Tihar Jail evoked from Kashmiri separatists and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah continues to discharge his responsibilities in a manner he was requited as the executive head of the State, as also as Home Minister. He is doing a right thing by taking all possible steps to maintain law and order in the Kashmir valley. Yesterday, he slammed the hanging of Guru as well as the UPA Government and tried to convince the people of Kashmir that he was innocent and that he did not play any role whatsoever as far as the hanging of Guru was concerned. He said many other things to clear his position and attacked the PDP and separatist leaders like Syed Ali Shah Geelani for their campaign against him but also made it clear that he was not seeking a review of the case. He also tried his level best to convince the people of Kashmir through interviews which he gave to at least three leading private new channels that he had informed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde about the likely impact of hanging of Guru on Kashmir, especially the young generation of Kashmiri Muslims.
One can understand the compulsions of Omar Abdullah considering the nature of Kashmir politics or whatever one may calls it. He is not only Chief Minister, but he is also working president of the National Conference (NC) whose interests he would always want to protect and promote further, if possible. The dramatic shift in his stand on hanging of Guru needs to be viewed in this context, as also in the context of the ongoing campaign that he knew everything before hand and that he did not play his role to save the life of Parliament attack convict Guru.
However, Omar Abdullah committed a serious mistake by feigning ignorance or by telling his constituency as well as the separatist and the opposition constituency in Kashmir that he came to know about the decision of the Union Government to enforce the Supreme Court verdict on Guru just 12 hours before he was hanged. It was this that created serious problem for him and led many to question his very credibility. What made matters worse for the Chief Minister who was extending his fullest possible support to the Union Government and doing all that he could to keep the emerging situation in the volatile Kashmir under control was a report on the issue which had appeared the same day in a leading national daily, Hindustan Times. The story revealed in minute detail as to what had transpired between him and the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister and Finance Minister P Chidambaram as far as the issue of hanging of Guru was concerned.
The report said that the Union Government had taken Omar Abdullah on board as early as on January 31, when he met with the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, who not only reportedly told him that "it was only a matter of time before Guru was sent to the gallows", but had also asked him what kind of impact the hanging of Guru would have on Jammu and Kashmir. The report also said that the Prime Minister and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, member of Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), had told Omar Abdullah that he should "prepare for Afzal's hanging". The report suggested that Omar Abdullah had asked "if the hanging could be put off", but his suggestion was not considered. The report did not suggest that he wanted the Prime Minister, Home Minister and the Finance Minister to commute death sentence to life imprisonment; he simply wanted them to consider "if the hanging could be put off".
Significantly, the report in the national daily also suggested that Omar Abdullah had told Shinde that the "hanging would have greater consequences if executed in the summer months". Not just this, the report also said that when on February 8 at 8 pm Shinde told Abdullah that "woh jo hum ne baat ki thi, woh kal subah hogi" (The thing we discussed will take place tomorrow), the Chief Minister talked to the Governor and the State DGP "soon after the phone call" and "the law and order machinery was put on high alert". The report said that everything was done meticulously, including mobilization of forces overnight, while "ensuring secrecy was maintained".
The report reveals almost everything, including the work the State Government did to put everything in place to meet any eventuality. In other words, Omar Abdullah acted in the manner he should have without creating any difficulty for the Union Government. It is this report that is likely to give more ammunition to the separatists and the PDP leadership, thus adding further to the difficulties of the already under attack Omar Abdullah. It would be better if he works with a renewed zeal to take on his bitter critics in the separatist camp as well as in some "mainstream" political parties, including the PDP. Even otherwise, he has no other option. Things would have been entirely different had he quit the Government anytime after January 31 and before February 8. Since he thought it better, and very rightly, to work in unison with the Union Government despite his reservations and since he is sincerely monitoring the situation in Kashmir, particularly since January 31, his quitting the Government in protest at this juncture will not help him and his party. He took the right stand at the right time and he should stick to it come what may. |
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