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Kashmir : PDP forces Deputy Chief Minister Beig to quit

	September 04, 2006

Suspicions of Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussein Beig, who belongs to the People’s Democratic Party, getting “too close to the Congress”, has resulted in his party forcing him to quit the Ghulam Nabi Azad Government. The PDP feared that the Congress in Kashmir may try to repeat the Karnataka scenario where the state Deputy Chief Minister who belonged to the Janata Dal (Secular) got “too close” to the national party, which ultimately resulted in a rift in JD(S). The episode ended with former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda’s son H.D. Kumaraswamy walking out of the Congress-JD(S) coalition to tie up with the BJP and become the Chief Minister.



For some time the signals were clear that the top two leaders of the PDP, the former Chief Minister, Mufti Mohd. Sayeed and his daughter and party president Mehbooba Mufti were unhappy with Beig for overshadowing them and getting too close to the Congress. A senior PDP leader said recently, “It is out in the open. Azad hijacked our party leader in the Assembly. Beig was our man, but only on paper.”



Faced with the no confidence expressed by the PDP in him, Beig announced his resignation from the post of Deputy Chief Minister and as Minister on Saturday, Sept. 2. While doing so, he accused the party leadership of “deeply hurting” his sentiments. Completely sidelined by the party, there are reports that he may also quit the Assembly and the PDP. But he said, he would decide on this after consulting the voters who elected him to the state Assembly.



The controversy had begun with the PDP recommending to Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, to withdraw Beig’s portfolios and replace him by Abdul Aziz Zargar as Deputy Chief Minister following the Cabinet expansion last Tuesday. Beig had been holding portfolios of finance, planning, law and parliamentary affairs as Deputy Chief Minister in the Azad-led coalition government.



Addressing a press conference in Srinagar, Beig said he would be meeting the Chief Minister with the request of “relieving me of the duties assigned to me. I will also thank him for (reposing) confidence in me.” He added that he would not like to destabilise the government and “it will not be my attempt to get the coalition partners on collision course”. “I have been accused of being close to Azad...it was my duty as Deputy Chief Minister. But, I did not betray the PDP”, Beig made it clear. “I have opposed human rights violations, but I am not accusing Azad for any increase in this. There has been a gradual decline in violence” ever since the National Conference government took over in 1996, he said. He held that there were leaders bent upon disgracing or failing Azad, but he was opposed to such attempts, Beig pointed out.



“Unfortunately I am at the centre of controversy”, Beig said while referring to the developments taking place during the past couple of days. He accused the PDP leadership - the patron, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, and his daughter and party president Mehbooba Mufti - of not taking him into confidence on the decision for change of portfolios.



Beig said, “I was surprised to hear about the party’s decision, as on August 30 my party president wrote to the Chief Minister reposing faith in me as Leader of the Legislature Party. On August 31, the party, according to the president, lost faith in me.”



Considered number three in the PDP, Beig said “I will make public the compulsions and conspiracies at an opportune time. This is not the right time. If I do it now and give you the details of dirty politics, you may say he is talking out of anger,” he said.



Beig said he was not party to Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s decision to retain him as Finance and Planning Minister despite the PDP’s recommendation to change his portfolio. “Azad told me that he took this decision carefully and he wanted to retain me.”



On PDP founder and former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, he said: “What I will do is that I will never abuse him. I have once treated him as a father and I will continue to do so even if we part ways. The Mufti is a big leader and has a role in the overall political scenario of Kashmir.”





Congress high command mounts damage control



Faced with the crisis in the Kashmir coalition on the issue of Beig’s continuance the Azad Ministry, the AICC central leadership intervened to mount a damage control exercise. It is believed that the political temperature had hotted up so much that the PDP was considering a move to withdraw support to the Congress-led government in the state. But the extreme option was not resorted to after PDP president Mehbooba Mufti had talks with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and AICC general secretary Ahmed Patel. The PDP leadership was assured of a fair deal and the Congress came out with a statement on September 1 that the PDP’s decision to nominate a new leader of the legislature party was an internal matter of that party.



“There is no question of the Congress or Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad deciding on who should be the PDP nominee. It is not possible,” said a party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi. The comment came in response to a question whether the Congress-PDP arrangement was in trouble and on the verge of parting ways. “There is no question of any move of any kind affecting the stability of the government.”



Observers say that though the rift in the Kashmir coalition has been papered over, the rumblings may continue on account of Beig’s unceremonious exit from the Azad Government. Beig was known to be close to Azad, and Mufti and his daughter thought that he was fast emerging as a threat to their leadership.



In a related development, the PDP revoked the suspension of senior leader Ghulam Hassan Mir to check the ramifications likely to be caused by Beig’s possible revolt.



Observers say that the Congress may also be keeping open its option of doing business with the Omar Abdullah-led National Conference to reduce its dependence on the PDP in the state. Chief Minister Azad is likely to discuss the recent political developments with party president Sonia Gandhi.



Elements within the PDP as well as some state Congress leaders are reported to be unhappy with Abdul Aziz Zargar’s appointment as leader of the PDP legislature party in place of Beig. Zargar was allegedly linked with the 2003 Akshardham attack in Gujarat. One of the accused in the case, Chand Khan of Bareli, in Uttar Pradesh, had said that Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists had planned the temple attack at a meeting held at Zargar’s residence.





Azad Ministry expanded



Earlier in the week, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad expanded his Council of Ministers on August 29 by inducting nine more Ministers taking its total strength to 22. One Minister of State was elevated to the Cabinet rank.



Those sworn in included three Cabinet Ministers. Five Ministers each from the Congress and the PDP were sworn in. The Ministry has now 14 Cabinet Ministers apart from the Chief Minister and seven Ministers of state.





Al Badr terrorist flown to Mumbai



Akmal Hashim, a terrorist of Pakistani nationality, arrested from the Damal Hanjipora area of Jammu and Kashmir on August 23, has been flown to Mumbai. Belonging to the Al Badr militant outfit, Hashim is to be questioned for his possible role in the July 11 serial terror strikes in the metropolis.



Hashim’s possible role in the Mumbai serial bombings has been the subject of intense media speculation ever since he was held near the village of Nandimarg in the course of an operation by the 3 Para Commando regiment.





According to Hashim’s interrogation report, a group of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists with whom he had been billeted in the Gool-Gulabgarh forests of Udhampur claimed organizational responsibility for the bombings.



“Mujhe Lashkar ke bhaiyon ne bataya ki hamney blast karaye (the Lashkar brothers told me that their organization had executed the bombings),” the report records Hashim as saying.



Police and Intelligence Bureau personnel handling the Mumbai serial bombings investigation said, “We’ve long known that the Lashkar carried out the bombings and that its units in Jammu and Kashmir might have had links to the perpetrators.”



Hashim, belonging to Gujarat town in Pakistan, served as a Lance Naik in the Pakistan Army until 1996. After resigning from the Army, he joined the Al-Badr, a Pakistan-occupied Kashmir based terror group.





Sex scam : SC notice to CBI, state Government



The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Jammu and Kashmir Government and the CBI on a petition filed by 13 accused in the Srinagar sex scandal seeking transfer of the trial outside the state. When the matter was taken up on Monday, August 28, a Bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal took exception to a resolution passed by the Srinagar Bar Association asking its members not to appear for the accused. The Bench said such a resolution was violative of the Supreme Court order.



Counsel for the Bar Association submitted that the CBI was deliberately not arresting the accused involved in the scandal because some of them were holding posts of Cabinet Minister, or were holding senior posts in the police department. The Bench adjourned the hearing till September 14.



The politicians, bureaucrats and police officers, facing trial in the scandal, pleaded before the Supreme Court that they were “implicated” in the case for their role in fighting terrorism in the state.



Appearing for the accused, senior advocates Arun Jaitley and R K Jain contended that their clients were being deprived of the services of lawyers and that expectations of a fair trial in a surcharged atmosphere in the Valley appeared remote.



Giving instances, the petition said K.C. Padhi has played a significant role in “creating a situation of peace and tranquility in the Kashmir valley as is now existing”.



“Two ministers have been accused in the matter who too played a pivotal role in bringing normalcy in the state,” the petition stated.



Referring to senior IAS officer Khandey, the petition stated he has served in various capacities “which are directly and indirectly aimed at negating the militants’ ideology in Kashmir valley”.



Meanwhile, in the second sex scam to surface in the state, the Jammu and Kashmir police have arrested JDU state president Mir Khurshid. The scandal was run from Handwara, in north Kashmir, under the garb of an NGO Women’s Welfare Organisation.