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| Azad is at the new centrepiece of Indo-Saudi axis | | ABID SHAH | |
Early Times Report
NEW DELHI, Mar 2: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's last weekend's visit to Saudi Arabia has turned out to have an obvious Kashmir connection.
This is so despite Government retracting from its Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor's statement about Riyadh's likely role as interlocutor between India and Pakistan because of the Arab Capital's formidable influence on Islamabad.
Indeed, Tharoor did not include Kashmir as a subject of interlocution. But the sheer fact that the former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and now Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was the senior most Minister accompanying the delegation led by Prime Minister to Saudi Arabia inevitably makes Jammu and Kashmir far more conspicuous than what is being officially stated.
Manmohan Singh through Azad has been able to show his hosts as well as the rest of the world that New Delhi has its own elected leaders from the State that Pakistan tries to call in dispute with India.
Before Azad's joining Prime Minister's delegation to Saudi Arabia the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Party president Saifuddin Soz led the Indian delegation to Mecca during last November's Haj.
Through these visits New Delhi has obviously been doing a friendly positioning before mainly the oil rich Saudi Arabia and generally other countries of the region where it has also been ensuring that leaders from Jammu and Kashmir are given prominence.
This is bound to cause concern not only in Pakistan but also in the Hurriyat camp that has only been insisting to visit Islamabad despite their visit often getting postponed because of uncertain security situation in the neighbouring country. In the past Hurriyat leaders have been visiting Saudi Arabia and may do so in future as well but Prime Minister's latest Riyadh visit is going to put New Delhi in closer contact with Saudi Arabia to take politics out of all such visits.
Moreover, since both Soz and Azad are Congressmen this may also boil down to slighting of National Conference leaders like Farooq Abdullah and Mufti Mohammed Sayeed or their son and daughter Omar Abdullah and Mahbooba Mufti respectively.
In the past Omar has been himself a Union Minister of State for External Affairs and the then BJP-led National Democratic Alliance Government under Atal Behari Vajpayee banked on Omar more in such matters.
Though Azad is Union Health Minister none of the agreements signed between India and Riyadh during his visit were so much related to Health. His presence in Manmohan Singh's mission to Saudi Arabia has not been without political significance.
This also marks a new closeness between Azad and Prime Minister's office since in the past Azad had accused PMO officials of leaking his communications to Prime Minister and their exploitation by adversaries through media.
Moreover Azad's options to have a say in matters of his State took a setback when he raised doubts about the consequences of the amnesty offer that the Union Home Ministry flaunted to woo back Kashmiri youth who were earlier lured by Pakistan and crossed the borders.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah did not like a dissent by Azad in the matter and Home Minister P Chidambaram had said that concerns expressed by Azad would be kept in mind while formulating the modalities for the return and rehabilitation of such youth. But Azad's recent stride as a delegate opted by Prime Minister for his Riyadh sojourn appears to be changing the power scheme to the advantage of the Union Health Minister.
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