news details |
|
|
| Omar quits as PDP bids to dump him in slur | | A DAY OF HIGH DRAMA IN ‘JINXED’ HOUSE | | Coalition seeks Baig’s dismissal through privilege motion, CBI disowns accused ‘list’
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, July 28: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today submitted his resignation to Governor Narendar Nath Vohra after a senior leader of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig alleged on the floor of the state legislative Assembly that the head of the coalition government was an accused in the infamous Srinagar Sex Scandal of 2006 and had, thus, no moral authority to run the government. However, in a sequence of dramatic developments till late tonight, Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) disowned the list produced by Mr Baig and clarified to Speaker, Mohammad Akbar Lone, that Omar Abdullah did not figure among the individuals wanted by CBI and he was not an accused. Immediately after the salvo fired by Mr Baig began boomeranging on PDP, ruling coalition partners, National Conference and Congress not only expressed complete faith in Omar Abdullah’s leadership but also moved a privilege motion in the Assembly Secretariat, seeking the PDP MLA’s dismissal for his act of “misleading the House and indulging in character assassination of the Leader of House”.
Even as almost all of his Ministers and MLAs from NC as well as Congress made strenuous efforts to hold him back from taking “an impulsive decision”, Omar Abdullah drove all the way to Raj Bhawan and handed over his resignation as Chief Minister to the Governor. Taking high moral ground, Omar implored that he be relieved of his office if Governor found any substance in the charges leveled against the head of the government.
“This morning on the floor of the House, the Peoples’ Democratic Party MLA namely Sh. Muzzafar Hussain Baig leveled unsubstantiated allegations against my person attacking my character. Those who lead must not only be clean but also look to be clean. At the end of the day, all one has is one’s personal credibility and self respect. Both of these Mr Baig tried to snatch from me through the charges he leveled. I would be grateful, if you could enquire into the allegations against me in a time-bound manner and if you are satisfied that there is any basis in these allegations please accept my resignation immediately” Omar wrote in his resignation letter.
Added he: “I want to keep my conscience clean and do not want to carry this stigma on my mind because I have always believed that politics should be clean and based on high standards of morality. I will always continue to strive for rich traditions which I have inherited from my grandfather Sher-i-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and my father Dr Farooq Abdullah”.
Raj Bhawan sources told Early Times that Governor Vohra, who was on way to New Delhi on a scheduled visit, returned from Srinagar Airport after he received a communication that Chief Minister had sought an urgent appointment with him. They said that Governor received Omar Abdullah’s resignation and asked him to continue till he took a decision after assessing the facts and circumstances leading to latter’s act of deciding to step down. Sources said that Governor informed Union Home Minister, P Chidamabaram, about Chief Minister’s resignation and also sought relevant details, including a purported list of the sex scandal accused earlier produced by Mr Baig in the Assembly, from Speaker.
CBI clean chit
Speaker Lone, sources said, responded quickly and forwarded the unsigned list, containing more than 100 names, to Governor. Highly placed sources in the Government revealed to this newspaper that Speaker also wrote a letter to Director CBI, requesting him to verify whether it was an authentic list submitted to a court by CBI, as earlier claimed by Mr Baig, and whether Mr Omar Abdullah’s name did figure in the people wanted as accused by the investigating agency in the Srinagar Sex Scandal. Within four hours, Director CBI responded to Speaker, Mohammad Akbar Lone, with the observation that CBI had completed its investigation and filed nine chargesheets against 17 accused persons in the court. Director CBI made it unambiguously clear that Mr Omar Abdullah did not figure anywhere among the people accused or wanted by his agency.
In New Delhi, Director CBI sent a similar communication to Home Minister who had also desired to know whether J&K Chief Minister was among those wanted or accused in the Srinagar Sex Scandal. Home Minister made a statement to this effect on television and also communicated same to Governor after he landed in the union capital late this afternoon.
In Srinagar, all Ministers and legislators of NC and Congress held an emergency meeting at the Meeting Hall in Assembly complex and expressed their full faith in Omar Abdullah’s leadership. A press release issued by NC’s Chief Whip and Advisor to Chief Minister, Mubarak Gul, said that the meeting, chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, “condemned in strongest terms the baseless and malicious allegations leveled against the Hon’ble Chief Minister by PDP MLA Sh Muzaffar Hussain Baig”.
Sources said that members from both the parties drafted a privilege motion and submitted it to Assembly Secretariat, seeking dismissal of the PDP MLA for his “brazen breach of privilege”. It asserted that Mr Baig had misled the Assembly with unsubstantiated allegations of serious nature against Leader of the House and also resorted to his character assassination. It is likely to come up for disposal on Wednesday. Sources said that the coalition legislators were also considering suggestions of filing a criminal contempt petition against Mr Baig in Punjab & Haryana High Court where the matter of sex scandal was sub judice.
Earlier, in the forenoon, MLAs of the opposition BJP, PDP and National Panthers Party shouted slogans to press their demands of detailed discussion on certain burning issues like termination of the engagement of ‘Rehbar-e-Ziraat’ technocrats by Minister of Agriculture Ghulam Hassan Mir and the human rights situation, particularly the incident of rape-cum-murder of two young women in Shopian on May 29th last. They relented only after Speaker assured them that he would provide them an opportunity to raise such issues during Zero Hour.
After the Question Hour concluded and BJP’s Prof Chaman Lal Gupta raised the issue of the purported disengagement and arrest of agriculture graduates at Civil Secretariat entrance the other day, in the Zero Hour, PDP’s Muzaffar Hussain Baig made an eloquent speech on the incident of alleged rape-cum-murder of two women in Shopian. He complained that the NC-led coalition government had done little to take action against the guilty. He alleged that the Government had set free a Hurriyat leader, Maulvi Tariq, and set a stage to attack PDP President Mehbooba Mufti on occasion of her visit to Shopian on June 3rd. Mr Baig claimed that senior officials had misled Chief Minister and made him issue a false statement on Shopian on June 1st. He demanded severe action against the Police officers who, according to him, had misled the Chief Minister.
After concluding his speech on Shopian, Mr Baig suddenly referred to the Srinagar Sex Scandal of year 2006. He said that on his initiative, Government had ordered CBI inquiry as senior Police officials and politicians had been projected as the accused. He said that CBI undertook the investigation and produced chargesheet against some of the accused in J&K High Court. He narrated that on a petition filed by High Court Bar Association, a Division Bench of J&K High Court had later directed CBI to also interrogate a number of influential persons whose names had been mentioned by certain female victims in their statements but who, according to Mr Baig, had been neither arrested nor interrogated.
On this point of his speech, Mr Baig took out some xeroxed but unsigned papers from his pocket and said that he was submitting to the Speaker a list which, according to him, contained the names of influential persons who had been spared by CBI. Then he fired the veritable salvo by claiming that the name of Omar Abdullah S/o Farooq Abdullah was there at serial number 102 in the list. “Mr Omar Abdullah has no moral authority and he should resign”, Baig said and provoked a pandemonium in the House.
Amid accusations and counter-accusations, PDP MLAs, led by leader of the party Mehbooba Mufti, walked out of the House with the slogans of “shame, shame”. A visibly embarrassed and perplexed Chief Minister got up to use his right of reply but he succeeded only after the PDP MLAs deserted the House. During a bitter altercation with the PDP MLAs, NC’s MLA Nazir Gurezi shouted that Mr Baig himself had kept a woman at his house for 12 years and thereafter married her.
Omar Abdullah later dropped a bombshell when he said that the allegations against him were of extremely serious nature and he would feel himself guilty until proved innocent. He announced that he would straightaway drive to Raj Bhawan and hand over his resignation to the Governor. Most of his Ministerial colleagues and MLAs from both the ruling parties, besides their associate members, rushed to the Chief Minister’s desk and made strenuous efforts to prevent him from submitting his resignation. Omar stoically declined and made it clear that he could not function as Chief Minister with such serious accusations on his head.
Dr Farooq Abdullah, who earlier watched Question Hour proceedings in the House, returned from Srinagar Airport. He was among hundreds of leaders from NC and Congress who made sustained efforts to calm down Omar Abdullah. Omar later drove to his home, drafted the letter and delivered it on Governor.
Meanwhile, Muzaffar Hussain Baig called a press conference at Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s official residence which was attended neither by Sayeed nor Mehbooba. Flanked by his party colleagues, Maulvi Iftikhar, Tassaduq Hussain and Abdul Gaffar Sofi, Mr Baig said that not only Omar but also his father, Dr Farooq, were among the people mentioned as accused by the CBI. He made frontal attacks on CBI with the allegation that it had hushed up parts of the investigation and protected several influential persons in defiance of the directions issued by J&K High Court. He demanded that the investigation should be carried out further under supervision of J&K High Court either by CBI or by a retired judge of Supreme Court of India.
Even as well placed sources told Early Times that the PDP leadership was upset and divided over Mr Baig’s “frontal offensive” on the Chief Minister, hundreds of NC workers gathered on Gupkar Road near Omar’s an Farooq’s residences and they shouted slogans against the PDP leaders. They burned Mr Baig’s effigies and one of the Omae loyalists even made an attempt of self-immolation by putting himself in flames. Angry crowds later directed an attack on PDP leader Maulvi Iftikhar’s Highland Motors and smashed its glasses in stone pelting. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
