PDP, NC patron refuse to save collapse of Azad govt
Iftikhar Gilani
NEW DELHI, Jul 4: Patrons of two major mainstream parties have almost overturned the pleas by some central leaders to rush back from their trips abroad to plug the political crisis created by the PDP's withdrawal from the Congress-led ruling alliance. They have so far declined to save the collapse of Ghulam Nabi Azad government in the trust vote ordered by the governor on Monday.
While Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is undergoing treatment in the United States, his counterpart in main opposition National Conference Dr Farooq Abdullah, also a
former chief minister, is away in London. Both have left the management of the current crisis to their siblings, who head their respective parties now.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil is believed to have tried in vain to persuade the Mufti to return after he failed to convince his daughter and PDP President Mehbooba to reconsider the decision to pull out from the ruling alliance.
Azad has been trying to befriend the National Conference for months, sensing trouble from the PDP, but its president Omar Abdullah, who has full reigns of the party in the absence of his father Farooq Abdullah is in no mood to help.
Analysts believe that Dr Farooq Abdullah and Mufti could have saved the situation for Azad. "It would have been very difficult for Mufti saheb to say no to either to the Prime Minister or to Congress president Sonia Gandhi," says a senior PDP leader who was until
recently a minister in the Azad cabinet.
Omar Abdullah, who took over as the NC president in June 2002 and Mehbooba Mufti, who took the reins of the PDP in August 2005 have often plunged their parties into crises and as such the analysts do not expect them to rescue Azad, particularly when their hostile stand could help them in re-establishing their parties in the Kashmir valley.
Both think fall of the Azad government would be another psychological victory for the Kashmir Valley-centric parties while the Congress that has much support from Jammu region may suffer from the BJP's campaign against cancellation of the land allotted to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).
Many bigwigs in the PDP have already disassociated with the party expressing dissatisfaction over the working of Mehbooba Mufti. The NC cadres also blame Omar Abdullah for the party's defeat during the last assembly elections in 2002. The discontent amongst party cadres had forced the NC to once again project Dr Farooq Abdullah as the chief ministerial candidate for 2008 polls.
How Mehbooba hurried for withdrawal of support to the Azad government is also quite interesting. She got a tip-off that Omar Abdullah had consulted his legislators and decided to send all 24 NC MLAs' resignations to the Governor on June 30 to press for revoking land allotment to SASB. To pre-empt the National Conference move, Mehbooba pulled out of the coalition two days ahead on June 28.
Both National Conference and PDP are the mainstream parties and believe that their approach will help them to get reconnected to the masses in the valley and wean them away from the separatists who took control of the agitation that forced the government to cancel the land allotment to the shrine board.