Mirwaiz lunches with Radha, PDP leaders

In an interesting political development Huriyat (M) Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, on Sunday lunched with New Delhi’s Interlocutor Radha Kumar and several other important Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at a lakeside government property outside Srinagar.

Well-placed sources said that a Srinagar based doctor had organized an ‘informal lunch’, for a very select group of people that included Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Senior PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Beigh, centre’s interlocutor Prof. Radha Kumar, PDP spokesperson Dr. Sameer Koul, Sandeep Chatto, Dilawar Mir, former Minister Usman Majeed and close Mirwaiz aide Shahid-ul-uslam.

Interestingly the only presence from the government’s side was one of the District Development Commissioner holding charge of a very sensitive district. Sources also said that not a single member from either the ruling National Conference or the alliance partner Congress was invited for the ‘select’ lunch.

“We can’t call it a private lunch. It was held at a government owned club and the invitees were very important personalities. If the idea was that of a hush hush affair, then the lakeside club would not have been a venue”, a top government official told Kashmir Monitor.

Sources added that Mirwaiz had a brief interaction with Radha Kumar, details of which could not be ascertained. The Mirwaiz, sources say, then left the venue earlier than others while as his colleague Shahid-ul-Islam was seen having a long chat with the centre’s interlocutor.

Although brief, but Mirwaiz’s meeting with the top PDP leadership has set the tongues wagging from Srinagar to New Delhi and according to highly placed sources both the National Conference as well as the Congress were trying very hard to find out what exactly transpired between the two opposite groups. However, so far nothing much has been learnt about the details of the meeting.

Sources also indicated that Radha Kumar was trying very hard to get some of the separatists on board for their approval for parts of the report that she has co-authored. Kumar has been supportive of the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s demands for AFSPA removal and is now seen to be emerging as the key person for any revival of dialogue between the New Delhi and separatists.

Politics of deceit

BY: Hassan Zainagiree

That it is lust for power which holds pre-eminence to anything and everything for pro-Indian political parties has once again scripted its unalloyed truth. Witnessed in, what is hailed as, 'August' and 'sanctified' assembly the drama enacted has vindicated the stand of pro-resistance forces who rubbished the idea of joining political process managed and controlled by New delhi.

The manner in which two regional parties {a} NC which champions the cause of autonomy and b} PDP that swears for self rule acted as mute spectators in scuttling an innocuous resolution moved by independent MLA of Handwara Er. Rashid seeking clemency for parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, has brutally exposed their hypocritical and deceitful politics. That both have succumbed to the dictates of New Delhi reveals the value, weight and essence of’ people’s mandate' they say the people of Kashmir have given to them.

The BJP and Congress which have 'national' interests to serve for scuttling the resolution were expected to behave the way they choose. But the facilitating role the two regional parties played have unmasked their pro-Kashmir credentials. It has reinforced the belief that while hunger for power might make them growl and fight over what is thrown from New Delhi-with rulers in Delhi, incidentally , enjoying their head-butting and bull-fighting -they are seen clinching together in a bond of togetherness as and when it serves the political machinations of New Delhi.

Remember the precariously vulnerable positions of New Delhi when it was struggling to provide some semblance of democratic face to its otherwise garrisoned hold in Kashmir but fellt hamstrung. National conference volunteered to play the Trojan horse,. knowing that a party wearing all India nationalistic traits makes Kashmiris take a terrible fright, Mufti Muhammad , till then a staunch Congress leader , changed his political robes and carnated into new political formation , the PDP, where his soul remained the same only the body morphed up into different exterior. PDP did not act differently. It gyrated its hips and played to the tune of its masters as and when New Delhi asked it to do.

Both NC and PDP outsmarted each other to damage the freedom struggle. Delhi used them as political instruments in repressing and suppressing people of Kashmir.

Each of two tasted power and encrypted their profile on the memory genes of Kashmiris. Each one ruled under the blessings of Indian army and the shadow of AFSPA and PSA. The black laws which gave impunity to the armed forces from courts. While the NC helped creating the Shrine Board which helped outside state people to get membership of the Boards, the PDP accomplice in playing deceitful role in a cabinet decision giving forest land to the Shrine Board {which , as people well anticipated its political ramifications, led to the 2008 uprising}. if Dr. Farroq acted as a willing lackey in agreeing to the Chairman of Unified Head quarters comprising of army, police , CRPF and intelligence sleuths, signaling , albit wrongly to the world, that armed forces are sub-servient to the civilian government, Mufti Syed followed the suit.

The fact of the matter is that law-making bodies in JK have always breached the trust of people . The 'representatives' who get elected to these bodies get the 'mandate' of the people on local issues and governance but after getting 'elected' enact laws which they have no mandate of the people and which often tantamount to violating the autonomy of the state and peoples aspirations

So deeply and radically power have corrupted them that even when an unanimous resolution on autonomy is passed with two-third majority and Delhi pisses on it, the NC dispensation opts to bear with the ignominy than give up power. On the other hand, they remain on their toes not to miss any opportunity of showing their loyalty to Delhi. ‘If Farooq Abdullah’, as Syed Geelani says, ‘signed the death warrant of Shahhed Maqbool Bhat, his son Omer Abdullah, keeping alive the family tradition , rejected the Afzal Guru’s application to be shifted from Tihar jail to Central Jail Srinagar’.

The deceptive politics played by the PDP and the NC over Guru’s issue should not surprise us all. It is power and power alone that they are so energetically circumambulating around. For the sake of power, as their track record shows, they won’t mind even if entire Kashmir nation is hanged. They stand de-robed in their double-speak and double cross. People of Kashmir are too mature not to be fooled by their gimmicks.