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| Azad back in 24 Akbar Road business, J&K on agenda | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Sept 3: With the swine flu pandemic taking a slow but steady dive and the nationwide panic funneling down to just known cases for treatment, a little bit relaxed Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare is reportedly getting back into the active business of 24 Akbar Road –the Congress headquarters –and the agenda that tops his itinerary is, of course, Jammu and Kashmir.
Azad have had worst of his career in past one years –precisely beginning from the Amarnath land row when he was Chief Minister and ending at the swine flu when he is manning the Union Health Ministry. As he nostalgically told one of his close aides that being in Kashmir and Jammu gives him a unique pleasure, the Health Minister’s preoccupations with the deadly swine flu pandemic have been keeping him away from his home state, much to the pleasure of his detractors.
Congress sources say that when he was made health minister, the Congress’s feedback was Azad had wanted a less demanding post that would give him time to keep an eye on Omar Abdullah and his organisational work. Had that not been the reason, Azad would have been best bet for the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry, where he performed so well during previous innings.
However, there was something else in store for him. The pressure is telling on Azad. In the last two meeting of the Union Cabinet, he was taken to task for not “leading from the front” when the media launched a wall-to-wall coverage of the pandemic.
Immediately after Azad took over as Health Minister, the break out of swine flu just coincided with his power bounce-back in New Delhi. He was criss-crossing the country as his ministry issued perfunctory bulletins on the state of the pandemic. In between, he visited Jammu and Kashmir and had elaborate official meetings in Doda region and some in Srinagar.
Once the Parliament session was over, it was Azad’s turn to face the flak. Blame the party, a Congressman remarked acerbically. In the last week of June, when the swine flu started spreading, Azad was immersed in party work. He continues to be a general secretary minding Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Karnataka.
Interestingly, in the latest meeting held on August 27, sources said, Azad earned accolades from the Prime Minister and colleagues for being on the forefront of things all along the way in dealing with the pandemic.
His close aides and party sources feel, Azad is an enigma to the Congress. When he was asked to be Jammu and Kashmir chief minister in October 2005, he accepted the job unwillingly because Delhi, and more precisely 24 Akbar Road, was the hub of power politics and action, of which Azad was an integral player.
Once in Jammu and Kashmir, he sunk into the role and would have carried on eventlessly — the tulip garden he created in Jammu and Kashmir’s capital is billed as the highpoint of his innings — but for his flip-flop over the transfer of state land to the Amarnath Shrine Board that nearly polarised people along Hindu-Muslim lines across the state.
Congress sources wondered how the wily Azad, gifted with the ability to transform losing states into winners, very nearly lost his turf in Jammu and Kashmir.
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