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| Isolation forces terminally weakened Azad to take full about turn on surrender’ policy | | COMMENT | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Feb 15: On February 9, Union Health Minister and former J&K Chief Minister and JKPCC president Ghulam Nabi Azad criticized J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for asking the Union Government to allow him to implement a new surrender and rehabilitation policy for militants, operating both in the Indian-administered J&K and Pakistani-occupied-Kashmir.
Azad was right when he questioned the rationale behind the proposed surrender policy. His stand on the suggested surrender policy had evoked a highly positive response from unexpected quarters – the BJP and the RSS. Both these groupings showered all kinds of praises on Azad.
The arguments of Azad against the proposed surrender and rehabilitation policy were (1) this policy, if implemented, would threaten the national security and (2) it would help Pakistan push into the Indian-administered J&K more militants misusing the new surrender policy.
His stand was contrary to the stand taken by the J&K Chief Minister, who held the very next day a press conference to counter the Azad line and denounced the Union Health Minister in downright language for poking his nose in J&K affairs. His was a scathing attack on Azad by any yardstick.
The very next day, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram announced in New Delhi that he is with the J&K Chief Minister and that he not only welcomes his new surrender policy, but would also welcome the Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir-based Kashmiri militants if they wish to return to Kashmir. In other words, both the J&K Chief Minister and the Union Home Minister clearly snubbed the Union Home Minister.
The snub produced the desired result. In fact, the snub impacted the weak and isolated Ghulam Nabi Azad, whose supporters in J&K are at the receiving end, to the extent that he ate his words two days later and told the Doordarshan that “there is nothing wrong with the surrender policy…There is no hindrance as such…It’s just that we’ve to be cautious of the intentions of Pakistan…We need to take Confidence Building Measures as they’re imperative for peace restoration”.
It was a climb down from the stand he took on February 9 in Jammu while interacting with media persons. It was a U-turn of sorts. The U-turn Ghulam Nabi Azad took indicates that he has no supporter left either in the Union Government or in the Congress high command and that he ate his words in his desperate bid only to save his chair. What he told the Doordarshan on February 13 established that this broken-hearted politician, who doesn’t care for his supporters and followers and cares only for himself, is no more than a fair weather cock and turncoat and that he could go to any extent to remain in power.
More than that, his U-turn established that he is not a man of conviction. Men of conviction do not care for power and money. Nor do they hanker after any position. They simply hold their ground overlooking the consequences.
Gone are those old days when he reined supreme in J&K and at the Centre. Right now, his position is very precarious. He has none in the state he could bank upon. Nor has he any person in New Delhi who would come to his rescue and defend his actions and words.
The fact of the mater is that Ghulam Nabi Azad has bracketed himself with the type of such politicians who change stands everyday like the people change their clothes. Who will now believe him? He must sit up and ponder over.
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