news details |
|
|
| Azad bounces back | | |
NIRBHAY JAMMUAL
Jammu, May 22: After a brief but bitter experience in Jammu and Kashmir, the top crisis manager of the Congress is back in high spirits with a restructured role not only for the party and government but also for the home state.
After having been sworn in as cabinet Minister in the union cabinet headed by Dr Manmohan Singh Ghulam Nabi Azad will have a major say in the cabinet expansion in Jammu and Kashmir. By getting berth in the union cabinet Azad no longer stands sidelined and he may have some say in the streamlining the policies aimed at ameliorating the lot of people in Jammu and Kashmir.
If his views are given weightage, people like BR Kundal, a former Chief secretary, and member of the Legislative Council may find place in the state cabinet whenever it is expanded. Indications are that while Azad supports Kundal's berth in the cabinet Farooq Abdullah continues to back Vijay Bakaya, a former Chief secretary, who is also a member of the Legislative Council,for induction in the cabinet. If this materialised the next cabinet expansion will see two former Chief secretaries as members of the council of ministers. Bakaya's induction in the cabinet will give representation to Pandits in the ministry. Azad's induction in the union cabinet should be treated as a triumph of Jammu over the Kashmir valley. Usually in the past men who matter in the union cabinet would see to it that a member of the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha from Kashmir was given representation in the cabinet. This was done to convey to the world that Kashmir valley was an integral part of the country and its continued to receive preferential treatment. It was the result of this perception that Prof. Saif-ud-Din Soz,was inducted in the union cabinet. He remained a member of the cabinet for full five years though he was the member of the Rajya Sabha. When Atal Behari Vajpayee headed the NDA Government he had to request Farooq Abdullah to permit his son, Omar Abdullah,who had won the Lok Sabha election in 1999 from Ganderbal constituency, to join the union Ministry. Omar was inducted as Minister of state and after serving as Minister of state for commerce and industries he was given the key portfolio of minister of state for external Affairs.
This time Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh cast theior dice in favour of Azad who held ministerial posts during Indira Gandhi's and Rajiv Gandhi's time.It is an irony of fate that as a youth Congress leader he had been introduced to the senior centyral Congress leaders, including Indira Gandhi,by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. And the political events that shaped in Jammu and Kashmir in the summer of 2008,when the state witnessed worst ever crisis over the Amarnath Shrine Board land row,that the relations between Azad and his political mentor, Mufti turned sour. The swearing in ceremony of the union cabinet seems to have given a raw deal to the National Conference, which shares power with the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir. The Congress high command should have given at least one ministerial berth to an MP belonging to the National Conference. One may say that the Congress wanted to first induct those who belong to the Congress. It is not true. How was it that Mamta Banerjee and Sharad Pawar were inducted inthe cabinet. Farooq Abdullah, who has set a new record by winning two Assembly seats, Sonawar and Hazratbal,and later a seat in Rajya Sabha,contested the Lok Sabha poll successfully from Srinagar constituency, had learnt that he was not being inducted in the cabinet. He preferred to visit South Africa for watch the T-20 cricket series to being present in the cabinet swearing in ceremony. Well reports suggest t hat in the next cabinet expansion one NC MP and one Congress MP, Farooq and Saif-ud-Din Soz, may be inducted in the union ministry.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
