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| Farooq’s IPL cricket salvo is directed to win back Kashmir | | | ABID SHAH
EARLY TIMES REPORT
NEW DELHI, APR 21: Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah's attempts to dabble into Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket affairs are indeed guided by his desire to take the high visibility IPL cricket shows to his home State. He has expressed the desire that Jammu and Kashmir be given a chance to host IPL matches.
Abdullah has been taking keen interest in IPL controversy ever since his former colleague in Central Council of Ministers Shashi Tharoor got embroiled in the Kochi team controversy. And, in fact, Farooq Abdullah has been first to express the view that Tharoor should resign in view of the unseemly row over the way the Kochi team won the franchise through Minister's alleged support.
Ever since media has been lapping up whatever Farooq Abdullah has to say about IPL. In a clever move the senior Union Minister from Jammu and Kashmir has taken an equivocal stand where he wants a clean up in the IPL cricket which may not necessarily mean the removal of at IPL cricket commissioner Lalit Modi from his post.
This stand taken by Abdullah invariably turn television cameras towards him and he is never shy of giving his piece of mind on the Modi issue where he mainly says that the present IPL boss should not be hanged without being given to present his side of story. Obviously, Abdullah is keen on drawing a distinction between a Central Minister and an IPL cricket functionary.
To those who are now baying for Modi's blood, Abdullah has his own answer where he says that the huge success of IPL is turning out to be difficult to be stomached by many as success invariably brings envy and is seldom digested easily by Indians.
Whether Lalit Modi survives in his present IPL position or shown the door, Abdullah has been able to ensure his say in the IPL affair, sordid though this has turned out to be. The Union Minister has quite often been flaunting his position as president of Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association that qualifies him as a member of Board of Control for Cricket in India or BCCI which is the governing body of IPL cricket as well.
Abdullah's latest IPL salvo significantly comes after his State has been in recent past grappling with issues like participation by Armed Forces in State's cricket shows and extra surveillance of cricket players from Jammu and Kashmir while participating in cricketing events outside the State. From such disadvantageous position for Jammu and Kashmir Cricket team and its players, Abdullah is shrewdly turning the tide through his calculated and pointed intervention to clear murk out of high voltage IPL shows on the one hand and advocating the right of Jammu and Kashmir to host IPL cricket on the other.
The senior Central Minister who has been feeling slighted ever since being shifted to Centre has been directing not only his cricket moves to strike a positive chord among the home gallery but also his schemes like spread of solar energy that comes under his Ministry for the benefit of Jammu and Kashmir.
Besides this, Abdullah has also been making efforts for attracting investments for his States from both Indian as well as entrepreneurs from abroad. Once he sat through a meeting of visiting important Kashmiri Diaspora members at a chambers of commerce and industry hall in New Delhi for a whole day. And, thus, all these moves show an astute hand at politics for the sake of his State where senior Abdullah might try to return one day. He never expected to be so far removed from the affairs of the State as is the case ever since his son Omar Abdullah became Chief Minister with Congress support elbowing him out to the politics of the Centre.
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