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| Farooq veils unveiled, says half truth | | | Bashir Assad
Srinagar, Apr 8: The latest revelation, though concocted, made by National Conference
President and Union Minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah that 18 PDP MLAs offered him support for government formation through deceased Haji Sayed Yusuf in 2008 has brought some very interesting but hard facts to the fore.
Now it has become abundantly clear that deceased Haji Yusuf was very close to Abdullahs which they were denying till yesterday. Secondly, the single line statement of Dr. Farooq Abdullah itself speaks about the acquaintance Haji was enjoying with Abdullah family. And third, the statement in itself is a confession that Haji Yusuf was a political-broker rather fixer acting on the advice of senior Abdullah.
However, the interesting thing to note is that Dr. Farooq Abdullah overtly or covertly tried
to conceal the hard facts which were never discussed before and it is very important to unveil the truth about the contemporary history political fixation in the state.
Actually it was in 2002-03 not 2008 when Haji Yusuf was deputed to make inroads in newly emerged Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and garner the support of few MLAs from that party to keep Mufti away from the power.
Haji Yusuf who till 2002 was equally close to Muftis somehow changed his loyalty and developed a very interesting relationship with Abdullah family.
When Mufti Muhammad Sayed took the oath of office and secrecy on NovemberNov 2, 2002 at SKICC Srinagar, only Muzaffer Hussain Baig and Ghulam Hasan Mir were inducted as ministers from PDP while as Pandit Mangat Ram Sharma and Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed from Congress were given oath at that time. Since Anual Darbar had moved to Jammu, it was decided that the full fledged cabinet shall be formulated at Jammu. As the first cabinet expansion was slated for January 15, 2003, it was during this two and a half month period that National Conference made every overt and covert effort to break the PDP. For that Haji Yousef was the best bet for once being close to Mufti's and their party men and secondly being a crook as referred to by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in one of his statements. What happened in between the first swearing ceremony (Nov.2,2002) and the first cabinet expansion (January15,2003) in Mufti Mohammad Sayeed led coalition government is a living example of National Conference orchestrating political defection. Many MLA's like Ab. Rehman Veeri, Ab. Gafar Sofi, Mohammad
Khaleel Bandh, Sayeed Bashir Ahmad, Dr. Ghulam Nabi Lone, Haji Sarafaraz Khan and even Zahoor Ahmad Mir from PDP were lobbying for induction in the Council of Ministers led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. No doubt many MLA's from PDP and even Congress were desperate to see themselves in the Council of Ministers but there were remote chances of a defection because NC was dislodged from the power after 27 years and the political atmosphere was in support of the Mufti to the fullest. However, reports suggest that Haji Yousef approached six or seven MLA's and offered them huge sum's for defection. In fact NC tried to take full advantage of the stalemate over formation of government between PDP and Congress which continued for sometime after the results of 2002 General Assembly were declared. However, Haji Yousef unsuccessfully attempted to break PDP by offering huge sum's to six or seven MLA's from PDP who out rightly rejected the offer. In the meantime, a new political forum also came into being soon after 2002 elections which comprised on 13 Independents and individual groups which include Hakeem Mohammad Yasin, Gh. Mohiuddin Sofi, Babu Singh, Puram Singh, Ab. Majeed Wani, Aijaz Ahmad Khan, M Y Tarigami, Khaleel Mohammad Naik, Raman Mattoo and others. Dr. Farooq Abdullah even offered support to this group for formation of government to keep PDP away from the power. On the other hand Gh. Nabi Azad had several rounds of meetings with this group and also with some senior NC leaders like Ali Mohammad Sagar at hotel Broadway Srinagar where majority of the newly elected non NC and non PDP MLA's were camping during the entire period of stalemate.
However, PDP that had emerged as the most powerful voice did stick to its demand of heading the coalition government and even threaten to sit in opposition if not allowed to head a non NC government in the state and NC on the other hand left no stone unturned to keep PDP away
from the power. However, given the hard political realities and the situation that had emerged NC as a party was never an option for Congress to form a coalition government with and so thrust was laid on defection of NC and Ali Mohammad Sagar along with some other NC MLA's meeting Azad at hotel Broadway a couple times was aimed at to explore the possibilities of defection within National Conference. It was a cloudy situation and every political force was trying to assert in their own way and style. There are concrete evidences that during that period and even after the swearing in ceremony of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Nov 2 2002 till Jan 15 2003 when first expansion was affected to the cabinet Haji Yousef approached Ab. Gafar Sofi, Ab. Rehman Veeri, Mohammad Khaleel Bandh and a couple of more MLA's and offered huge sum's to them for effecting defection in PDP. Since Sofi was very close confident of Mufti who stood by him through thick and thin would not dream of crossing over and hence rejected the offer out rightly. On the other hand Veeri was the first symbol of PDP in the State Legislature when he was bi-elected in 1999 after Mehbooba Mufti resigned as MLA Bijbehara to pave way for formulation of new regional party- the PDP and so he too rejected the offer.
Since Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was at liberty to determine the size of his ministry as there was no law in force at that point of time which would restrict the size of ministry and as such aspirants for birth in the council of ministers were in no hurry and waited for their turn while rejecting the offer of National Conference through Haji Yousef. Finally Haji had to give up the idea of defecting PDP on Jan 15, 2003 when Ab. Aziz Zargar, Qazi Mohammad Afzal, Ab. Gafar Sofi, A R Veeri, Javaid Mustafa Mir, Sayeed Bashir Ahmad and Dr. Gh. Nabi Lone were inducted in the council of ministers with Zargar and Qazi as cabinet ministers and rest the ministers of state. Of course then it was other way round and PDP successfully got Moulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari and Muhammad Dilawar Mir defected from NC.
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