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| Cozying up of arch rivals in PDP: Beig, Mir upsets Mufti's apple carts | | | Early Times Special Correspondent
JAMMU | Nov 2
There are no permanent friends and foes in politics. Today's rivals become allies tomorrow and all options are kept open. Politics is the art of probables and availing of the opportunities, forging new combinations and permutations to suit the political expediency and interest of the parties concerned. Nothing proves this phenomenon better than the cosying up of two arch rivals in the PDP hierarchy in the state, Muzaffar Hussain Beig and Ghulam Hasan Mir, both vying with each other for supremacy in the party, almost ever since the formation of the PDP.
The two, who are the founder members of the party along with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and a couple of other politicians, have lately been pursuing a common agenda, with common perception about the future line of action to be adopted by the party, for its longevity and maintenance of relevance in state's politics. Both have lately become ardent advocates of PDP's continuous alliance with the Congress and are working overtime to ensure that the coalition government completes its full term and the alliance survives beyond that. The two, who in the past were running a race of one upmanship in their own party, claiming their respective merits and seniority to press for their status in the party hierarchy, are lately vying with each other to establish their closeness with the Central High Command in the Congress to get credit for keeping on hold PDP's withdrawal from the Congress led coalition government in J&K.
Ghulam Hasan Mir, a politician of longer standing than Muzaffar Hussain Beig, with the former having served a short term as a Cabinet Minister in Ghulam Mohammad Shah government, who had humbled heavy weight National Conference candidate, Dr. Mustafa Kamal, the brother of then Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, from Tongmarg constituency in 2002 assembly elections, avenging his defeat at the hands of Mustafa Kamal in 1996, always entertained the grouse for the party and its supreme leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed according more importance to Muzaffar Hussain Beig, a legal luminary and a Supreme Court lawyer, who otherwise was a new atrant in politics and came into the party fold after Mir. The two were however Cabinet Ministers in the Mufti led coalition government between 2002 and 2005. It was on account of the opposition from Mir that Beig who was nominated as President of the PDP, after Mufti became the Chief Minister of the coalition government in the state, that Beig was replaced by Mehbooba Mufti as the party President.
The tussle for supremacy came to the boiling point in November 2005, after Mufti recommended Muzaffar Hussian Beig for the post of Deputy Chief Minister in the Azad government, ignoring the claim of Ghulam Hasan, on the bases of his seniority. As a protest against the decision of the party in favour of Beig, Mir declined to accept cabinet berth in the Azad government. His disgruntlement with and rebellion against the party as well as animosity with Beig reached a new high when the party nominated Beig's younger brother as its candidate for fighting election from the seat vacated with the assassination of party MLA, who was also MoS in Mufti government. Ghulam Hasan Mir fielded the son of the slain party leader as the rebel candidate, who emerged victorious defeating the official nominee of the party. Amidst speculations of Mir being expelled from the party or his himself parting way with PDP and forming a separate outfit or joining the Congress, the PDP leadership mended fences with him.
In the wake of Ghulam Nabi Azad reshuffling his Council of Ministers in 2004 by inducting few more members in his ministry as well as changing the portfolios of the few, Beig also fell from the grace of Muftis, who wanted his portfolios of Finance, Planning and Law to be allotted to the new point man and favourite of father and daughter duo, Tariq Hamid Qarra. So much so that after Beig accepted his old portfolios, announced by Azad against the wishes of Mufti, the latter went to the extent of withdrawing Beig from the coalition government. It was under this background that both Ghulam Hasan Mir and Muzaffar Hussain Beig, who had common feeling of having been mal treated by the supreme party leaders, the father daughter duo, that the two developed a new equation, having common ground of disgruntlement. The fall from grace of Beig led to the rehabilitation of Mir in the party, who for the first time attended the meeting of the working committee, after his falling out with the leaders. At one stage Beig openly criticized party's slogan of self rule and demilitarization. It was after his one to one talk with Mufti that the tempers were cooled down and Beig continued to remain in the party and the move to tip Ghulam Hasan Mir to replace Beig as Deputy Chief Minister in Azad government was dropped.
With this long rivalry, the cosying up of the two now and even hints thrown that in case PDP finally decides to pull out of the Azad government, both Mir and Beig may leave the party and form a separate block, with a third front within the coalition partners emerging. It is under this background that the Muftis have now an added dilemma whether to pullout of the coalition or not. The fear of split in the party is checkmating them to pull the rug under the feet of Azad government. |
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