Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: July 8, 2008
A good man, betrayed twice over
In resigning on the floor of the Assembly
even before voting could take place on a confidence motion, Mr Ghulam Nabi
Azad, Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, took the honourable route out
of a morass not of his making. A decent man, Mr Azad has watched his Government
collapse amid a fortnight's bizarre political drama. He was twice betrayed
-- first by the PDP and then by his own party, the Congress, and its leadership
in Delhi. The PDP, controlled by the powerful Mufti Mohammed Sayeed clan,
walked out of an alliance with the Congress and reduced Mr Azad's Government
to a minority, protesting against the temporary and revocable transfer of
about 100 acres of land to Sri Amarnath Shrine Board for the setting up of
pre-fabricated pilgrim shelters. Though PDP forest and environment Ministers
had cleared the plan, the incendiary protests led by the All-Party Hurriyat
Conference caused the PDP to cave in and turn equally hostile. Mr Azad stood
his ground, defending his decision and being true to the former Governor,
Lt Gen SK Sinha, with whom he shared an excellent equation and who, in his
capacity as chairman of the Shrine Board, had made the initial proposal for
the use of forest land. Indeed, few know that Mr Azad had recommended Gen
Sinha's term be extended till at least October, so that he could oversee the
Assembly elections. After sitting on Mr Azad's letter, the Centre suddenly
announced it was appointing a new Governor, much to even Mr Azad's surprise.
A few days later, its handpicked Governor unilaterally 'returned' the land
to the Government -- which legally was the Government's to take back, not
the Shrine Board chief's to give back -- and claimed that the crisis has been
defused. In the end, the Congress has been left without a Government and with
a seething populace in Jammu. It has crippled the Shrine Board, which is a
replica of the Vaishno Devi Shrine Board that the party itself had incubated
in the 1980s, without assuaging the extremists. The fall guy has been Mr Azad.
He sought to uphold the law and do the morally correct thing, but found the
Union Government and his own party bosses undermining him.
What next for Jammu & Kashmir? A spell
of President's rule is inevitable before the October election and, if political
inferences are correct, a spell of President's rule can even be expected after
the election. With the BJP set to take advantage of the discontent in Jammu
and the National Conference and the PDP fighting it out in the Valley, a three-way
split between irreconcilable parties is forecast. The odd man out is the Congress
-- set to be punished in the election, having neither defended national interest
nor won points with the separatists, and made a sacrificial lamb of Mr Azad
in the process.