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| Azad's two years: one step forward, two backward | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Nov 1
When Ghulam Nabi Azad had sprung a surprise on taking over as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir he had brought in many unique features with him kicking off an ambitious ray of hope across the state. As he completes his two years in office, the Chief Minister himself seems to have lost in a quagmire the Jammu and Kashmir politics is made of.
A man who emerged a star negotiator for the Congress party at its national arena and would often come in handy to the high command in resolving the power crisis in the states as complex like Maharashtra, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, today himself runs dispensation which is known as a government but is actually a broken house for all practical purposes. His aides say that the ally Peoples Democratic Party is creating hurdles in his smooth business but the question is that why did Azad allow the alliance partner to put the institutions of administration in jeopardy with their threats of pulling out day in and day out.
Azad's graph of career is arguably a rare phenomenon for any politician. Coming from a remote village of Bhaderwah tehsil, he grew and grew in a meteoric rise but only till he was from the home state. In 2001, the terminally sick Congress party in Jammu and Kashmir was close to be written off from the political scene that the high command pressed Azad to the home state. What Azad means to politics was evident in the 2002 assembly election results as he brought the party out of morass and put in a lead role. However, the high command had to give in to Mufti's pressure and Azad was told to cool heels back in Delhi till he again assumed the center-stage by donning the all-powerful ministry of Parliamentary Affairs in 2004.
The process of regaining the lost ground was, however, shortlived. It was on November 2, 2005 that hesitantly replaced Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as Chief Minister under a mid-term power sharing agreement between Peoples Democratic Party and the Congress. When Azad assumed office the biggest immediate challenge was rehabilitation of thousands of victims of the previous month's devastating earthquake –an exercise he was already undertaking as representative of the Congress and as a Union Minister even before taking over as Chief Minister.
His assignment as Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister remained a key focus of the political observers as Azad has always remained reluctant to take up an assignment in the home state. The very swearing-in of Azad as Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister brought various political sensitivities along. First CM from Jammu region, first Congress CM after 30 years, his prolonged stint at the national political scene and no frequent and substantial contacts at home ground were some of the factors which invited an extra attention on Azad's approach to the politics of Kashmir Valley which is always crucial to any dispensation in the scenario of a significant separatist discourse.
Immediately after taking over, Azad announced his hate for the politics of slogans underlines cleansing of system and massive development as his agendas of governance. This gave the people a food for thought as they were having first Chief Minister who does not have to live on slogans of bombing Pakistan or showing the green scarf to the Kashmiris.
The first major milestone was enactment of a stringent anti-corruption legislation and then a sustained campaign against the corrupt elements. At many public occasion he would often say that the file containing names of the corrupt is so fat that there is rarely anyone out of it. The Transparency International had declared J&K as second most corrupt state but going by Azad's observations one could have easily realized that there are no parameters capable of measuring corruption in this state. With his ironed words against the corrupt, J&K saw huge benami sales and transfers of property as the government officials and politicians were so scared of that long arm of law which the Chief Minister often showed them.
However, at the end of two years of sustained campaign against corruption one gets baffled about the scenario: either corruption has vanished from the public life in these two years or there was not corruption at all. A dozen and half odd government officials, already having a chequered record, have been pointed out for amassing properties disproportionate to their known sources of income. The coalition has fallen out within on the war against corruption –the PDP says that the process is not fair.
The second major campaign was against the land grabbers as the Chief Minister announced on November 7, 2006 that he would be retrieving every inch of government land under the illegal possession of private parties. There are hundreds and thousands of kanals of government land under the illegal possession. Interestingly, earlier this year the enactment of Roshni scheme almost legalized every inch of land under illegal possession –though the grabbers had to pay for the land made available to them at throw-away prices.
In another unique phenomenon, the budget session was advanced by two months to give shape to the development program at appropriate time. However, it took several months to convene the meetings of the district development boards to dispense off the money earmarked in the budget.
There is no doubt that in his first year in the office, the Chief Minister took pathbreaking steps actually away from the political sloganeering but since November-December last year the coalition government is literally on ventilator which has been engaging the Chief Minister in saving the boat rather than giving practical shape to the plans he had come with. |
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