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| Did NDA really prop Mufti Sayeed? | | Editorial | |
The JKNPP Supremo, Prof. Bhim Singh is hardly taken seriously and his
statements favouring or criticizing other leaders and parties often
are not taken on their face valve, since he changes colours like
chameleon, to suit his political interest at a given time. Yet his
charge at a press conference in Jammu on November 4, that the BJP
leader L.K. Advani, as Home Minister of the country in the NDA
government advanced an amount of Rs 15 crore to Mufti Mohammad Sayeed
to float his parallel organization to the National Conference, with a
view to stalling the popularity of NC in Kashmir Valley, cannot be
brushed aside as an other rhetoric and kite flying by the one, who is
past master in the art. There is already a general perception here as
well as among the observers of J&K's political scene in the country
that Mufti was prompted by the country's Intelligence Agencies, who
liberally funded him to counter the hegemony and dominance of National
Conference in the Valley. During most of the time in last 58 years of
independence, National Conference exclusively or in coalition with the
Congress ruled the state. Very often the party and its leaders,
whether it was Sheikh Abdullah, before 1984 or later his son Farooq
Abdullah indulged in blackmailing the Centre as well as exploiting the
sentiments of the Kashmiris, by nurturing separatist feelings among
them. Thus to counter it the Central government, whether of the
Congress or of BJP always felt the need to prop a parallel pro
Kashmiri organization in the Valley, to counter the monopoly of
National Conference. Indira Gandhi in particular, during her tenure as
Prime Minister of the country always tried to keep the National
Conference at tenterhooks and even manipulated to topple the NC
government. Thus BJP can hardly be wronged if it propped Mufti to
float a parallel political force in Kashmir. Yet the charges that
Mufti was funded to the tune of Rs 15 crore by the Union Home
Ministry, under Advani, for the purpose, the matter needs be propped
and truth brought before the people. The NC President Omer Abdullah,
who was himself a minister of state in the NDA government in the
Centre, has already charged that Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is sponsored by
the Centre, to check the growing hold of NC in the Valley and that
after NC passed a resolution in the state assembly for granting
greater autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir, which was rejected by the NDA
government, the Centre embarked upon a plan to checkmate the NC and
for this Mufti was found as a tool. Prof. Bhim Singh's revelation,
which obviously have the backing of Congress, with a view to kill two
birds with one stone, to defame the former NDA government on one hand
and counter Mufti's cry for self-rule, will provide more gun powder to
the National Conference in its fight against Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. If
the NDA government led by BJP had prompted Mufti Sayeed to counter the
separatist overtones of NC, its apple carts have turned turtle, since
Mufti is not lagging behind NC in pursuing a separatist agenda. Thus
the Central government's policy of countering one evil with an other
has proofed wrong and needs be reviewed. Instead of sponsoring one
leader against the other, it will be better to address the real
concerns of the people at large and help in giving a good governance
to J&K, which has never been in the fait of the people in the state.
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