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| Azad supporters in state of shock | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, JAN 25: JKPCC president Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz has again asserted time and again that the Congress party is united and there is no dissension within the party. At the same time, he did admit that there are a few disgruntled elements in the party and such elements will be taken care of. He made these points at the January 22 Vijaypur rally, where a turncoat was admitted to the Congress party with great pomp and show. The rally had been organized specifically for this purpose. He also made identical statements while talking to a Kashmir-based media person a day later.
There is a point when the assertive Prof Soz beams with confidence and says that there is no factionalism in the Congress party and that the entire organizational machinery of the party is working in tandem and operating under his guidance. It is a fact that almost all the JKPCC office functionaries are with the JKPCC president. To be more precise, Prof Soz has been quite successful in taking along all the old guards. So much so, nearly all the district Congress committees are also functioning as per his wishes.
The extent of his success could be gauged from the fact that he has succeeded in bringing to his side such veterans as Pandit Mangat Ram Sharma and Union Health Minister and former J&K Chief Minister and JKPCC president Ghulam Nabi Azad’s brother Mohammad Sharief Niaz. He demonstrated his strength and complete control over the organization only a couple of weeks ago, when he distributed work among his team members and appointed veteran Mangat Ram Sharma as his political advisor, sans the status the Chief Minister’s Advisors Mubarak Gul (status of Cabinet Minister) and Devendra Singh Rana (status of Minister of State) enjoy. The fact of the mater is that Prof Soz is working smoothly and not facing any resistance whatever from any quarter.
On the contrary, the supporters of Azad, not so many, are finding themselves neither here nor there. They are in a state of shock. Of course, most of them have refrained from meeting the JKPCC president and from attending the official functions on the premise that their identification with Prof Soz may annoy Azad. If one goes by what his supporters tell privately, then it can be said that their patience may end any time and that they may switch over their loyalty to remain in the good books of the JKPCC president, who controls patronage and whose relations with the Chief Minister are very cordial and warm.
The situation has now reached a point where some of the desperate supporters of Azad have started leaking information about the kind of treatment they have been meted out in the past by the former Chief Minister in Jammu, in Kashmir and in Delhi. They disclose on the condition of anonymity that Azad would repeatedly make them wait for hours together outside in the lawns on the assurance that he would meet them, listen to their woes and redress their grievances so that they were accommodated and their demands met. They also reveal in a very sad tone that “when Azad would venture out of drawing room, he would just sake hands with a few, board his car and just leave his residence saying he had to attend some meeting”.
Some of his supports have even gone to the extent of revealing their experiences in Delhi, where they would go to meet Azad after “spending a substantial amount and wasting their time”. They reveal that the kind of treatment they meted out in Delhi by Azad was no different from what they used to get in Jammu.
Besides, they have started accusing Azad of exploiting them for ensuring that he remains relevant in the state politics. Whenever Azad wants to visit Jammu, some of his supporters reveal, “he would ask his men in Jammu and in Srinagar to organize big functions so that he could show that it is he and not the JKPCC president, who plays the shots. Otherwise, he would neither meet them and listen to them nor would he attend to their telephonic calls”. So much so, they have started accusing Azad of “telling his private staff not to attend the telephonic calls because the former Chief Minister has no time for entertaining their useless calls”.
The moral of the story is that the supporters of Azad are not happy. What has added to their unhappiness, bewilderment, frustration and desperation is the statement Azad made just a few days ago in Jammu that “his political inning in the state politics is over” and that “he is interested in national politics alone”. It is this statement that has changed the attitude of his supporters to the extent that they have started thinking in terms of changing their loyalty. Their comment that “Azad did not take care of even those few who worked with and for him day and night during the last assembly elections” and that “he only uses and exploits his supporters” should clear all doubts about the Azad’s sincerity. Azad has to instill confidence among his supporters if he wants to play some role in the state in the days to come.
But whatever be his present position in the state Congress and howsoever dissatisfied are his supporters, Azad does deserve credit for his bold stand on the Army and the issue of human rights.
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