R C Ganjoo
In political parlance, there are no permanent enemies, and no permanent friends, only permanent interests. Accordingly, Gulam Nabi Azad followed the Guru Mantra religiously while calibrating the political environment at the national level.
Why the sudden change made GN Azad bid goodbye to the Congress party serving for five decades at prestigious positions is a big question mark. According to sources close to Congress, Azad's game plan was to be a crusader of G-23 group in Congress and play his dissidence politics to save his future. Unfortunately, tables were turned against him by strong opponents when they manipulated him to chip his Rajya Sabha seat and also succeeded in reducing his stature in the party. He in a public meeting in Jammu after resigning from Congress lamented that all senior and experienced leaders were sidelined and a new coterie of inexperienced sycophants started running the affairs of the party.
For a long time, Azad had received inklings of his dark future in Congress. He tried to prove his loyalty when in Rajya Sabha as opposition party leader of Congress on November 18, 2016, backed by his party, remained firm and hit back at the BJP by raking up the Kandahar hostages-for-terrorists swap. Outside the House, Azad lashed out at the BJP. Justifying his remarks, he said he had not compared Pakistan and India. “This is their communal mind. BJP cannot think beyond communalism. They did it when they were out of power. Now they have become the ruling party, but still want to thrive on communalism. And who are posing as nationalists? Those released were Masood Azhar from the jails of Kashmir and flew him to Kandahar with great respect and with money and handed him over to the enemy?”
Perhaps, Azad failed to mention about his brother-in-law Tassaduq Dev was kidnapped by a group of terrorists on Sept 22, 1991, and was also released on January 17, 1992, in exchange for three jailed Al Umar Mujahideen activists. Another high-profile abduction case was of Nahida Soz, daughter of the then National Conference MP Saifuddin Soz, by the Jammu and Kashmir Students Liberation Front (JKSLF) in August 1991. She was also set free in exchange of Pakistan-trained hardcore militant, Mushtaq Ahmed.
If the political journey of Azad is analyzed he has always played manipulative politics for his survival. He has been the architect of keeping Congress units in states in dissidence, particularly Jammu and Kashmir. As a chief minister, Azad was proved a failure by Mufti Mohd Sayeed when he handed over the baton of Chief Ministership for three years as per the agreement between Congress and PDP (Peoples Democratic Party). The coalition partnership between Congress and PDP was entirely based on competition between both the parties, just to keep Farooq Abdullah's National Conference at bay. In the Udhampur rally on September 09, Azad admitted that he could not do as chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir when some people withdrew support from his (Congress-PDP) government.
Azad's game plan was to withdraw support to PDP from Congress so that he could forge an alliance with the National Conference. After installing Dr Farooq Abdullah in Kashmir, Azad wanted to return to New Delhi for a new assignment. But his plan was judged against the wishes of the party in his high command and was trapped in his own game plan. Saifuddin Soz as president of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee was assigned a new task of neutralizing Azad's game plan. According to sources in the state Congress, Azad tried hard to convince the party's high command of his self-promotion with a proposal of having three working residents representing the three regions of the state. Having installed his “yes men”' who would be involved in the selection of candidates, Azad wanted to have his control over elections by proxy from Delhi. But his plan fell flat.
Eventually, on Sri Amarnath Land row PDP had taken up the issue as political and eventually, Ghulam Nabi Azad was caught into his own web where he had to face a handful of opponents within his own party, of course with the latent support of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Both Azad and Mufti were arch-rivals during the days when the latter was heading the J&K Pradesh Congress Committee JKPCC). Azad created all possible hurdles for Mufti, to make him an unsuccessful leader of Kashmir. Eventually, Azad was reduced to minority government and he resigned on July 7, 2008, without completing his term for three years.
What is under the sleeves of Azad's is an open and shut baggage. His priority would be to elevate his image in Kashmir politics and in return to get a comfortable position in Delhi Durbar. In getting his Rajya Sabha seat through in 2015 Azad stooped so low that he had to sacrifice his Congress party ideology. He apologized in writing along with five of his favourite MLAs – G M Saroori, Vikar Rasool, Haji Rashid, Muhammad Amin Bhat, and Gulzar Wani – before an independent legislator from Langate, Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer Rashid (presently in Tihar jail) to secure his vote, admitting that it was the “mistake” not to allow Afzal Guru's family to meet him for one last time before his hanging.
Kashmir has a unique political culture since. What happens when no one knows? But, it has been well researched by political scientists that Kashmir cannot survive without the blessing from whosoever ruled Delhi Durbar. It is now Azad's inning in a complicated political environment where formidable PAGD and other parties Peoples Conference, Apni Party, and Congress will be on election pitch. He has somehow managed to take his favourites in Congress of less known stature to his side, also planning to create a dent in PDP, Apni Party to show his strength in the forthcoming election. It will be a real testing time for Azad.
It has been witnessed that direct or indirect coordination and alliance are responsible for Delhi durbar to run a democratic setup in Kashmir politics. Except, 1977 elections conducted in Kashmir used to be called free and fair when Sheikh Mohd Abdullah came back with a thumping majority against Janta Party. Since then the trend of coalition or paratrooper political leadership has managed Kashmir politics.
Political watchers say that Kashmir at present has a grave sigh of relief among those who had borne miserable life at the hands of Pak-sponsored militancy. Though they have lost love for Pakistan or its ideology, the bureaucratic establishment attitude continues to look at them with suspicious eyes. In the absence of an elected democratic government, automatically bureaucrats rule the roost. As a result, the depressed and disillusioned people in Kashmir should not be pushed back to the wall of a neighbouring country.
