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| Is Rather in the eye of a storm within his Govt? | | |
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Nov 27: Despite retaining massive support in his home constituency of Chrar-e-Sharief in the 7th successive Assembly election in 2008, senior National Conference (NC) leader and Minister of Finance, Abdul Rahim Rather, has found himself in the worst of his times in the year 2009. His stars have favoured him only to the extent that he has got the charity of a berth in Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s Cabinet---something that eluded his junior colleague and NC crowd-puller Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan or his parallel in Congress party, Choudhary Mohammad Aslam.
Maintaining his unflinching faith and loyalty for godfather Sheikh Abdullah’s party and progeny religiously in the last nearly 40 years, Rather used to be counted among three of the most influential Ministers in Dr Farooq Abdullah’s governments from 1982 to 2002. With stalwarts like Maulana Attaullah Suharwardy, Bashir Ahmed Kitchloo and P L Handoo passing away and men like Mohammad Shafi Uri either getting a dressing down at the hustings or shifting to the Parliament, Rather had for all practical purposes reached a position next only to Chief Minister in his government and President in his party.
While his worse placed colleagues kept sighing over their ‘deletion’, Rather came to be described as a disappointed Minister in the state’s political circles. Politicians as well as bureaucrats began spreading grapevine that Mr Rather wanted an accommodation ‘at par’ with his counterpart in the previous coalition regime, Muzaffar Hussain Baig. With both of his Chief Ministers---Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Ghulam Nabi Azad---Baig had, for most of his stint, retained key portfolio of Planning alongwith Finance, Law & Parliamentary Affairs.
Paradoxically in the thick of speculations of Planning coming to his way, Rather found himself stripped of even the ornamental Law & Parliamentary Affairs. He reportedly learned from some of his subordinate officials that he had been relieved of Law & Parliamentary Affairs that had gone as a bonus to his newfound detractor and Minister of Rural Development, Ali Mohammad Sagar. A strong contender for Housing & Urban Development, Sagar himself seemed to be hardly content with the poor bounty.
Despite succeeding in getting his favourite, Jalil Ahmed Khan, appointed as Economic Advisor to the state government, days to come were no soothing for Rather. According to insiders, he was never consulted in crucial matters like the coalition government’s political and administrative treatment to Shopian and its aftermath. He also managed to get three of his blue-eyed boys appointed as Directors on Board in J&K Bank but it is hardly a secret that tilt of the balance has been successfully retained by Chairman Haseeb Drabu with seven of the Directors continuing to be on his side.
Irrespective of whether it is embarrassing for Finance Minister, whose government has 53% equity in the bank, or for the Chairman, whose proximity to Chief Minister has been no different to what he had with his political mentor and promoter Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, it has been remarkably observed at Civil Secretariat and outside that the two have never had a formal meeting in the last nearly eleven months.
Well on the timing of formation of the government on 5th January, rumour mills worked overtime to talk of the “Income Tax raid” on a shopping mall in Jammu. They circulated ‘news’ that Mr Rather and his family members had been found as “silent partners” of a well established businessman. Soon it proved to be a hoax. Ever since, there has been a sustained campaign from within the corridors of power to generate one or the other controversy over the expanding business of Mr Rather’s son. The fact that he had raised a hefty loan from a bank well before formation of Omar Abdullah’s government, has proved to be his only good luck.
Rather has not been spared even on occasion of the wedding ceremony of his daughter last month. There have been reports surmising about guests and gifts at the wedding. And in a quick succession of events, a top officer in the government is now reported to have shot off a letter to Directorate of Estates, ostensibly insisting on austerity but implicitly and explicitly freezing all further expenditure on Rather’s and R S Chib’s Ministerial bungalows in Srinagar. “Sir, they have spent Crores on their houses” is what Chief Minister is reportedly hearing every day.
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