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AFSPA stand may yet checkmate Omar
After failing to coax the defence bureaucracy and the political establishment in New Delhi on his proposition to withdraw the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from select locations of Jammu & Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is attempting to deflect media attention by raising other issues.
An issue that Abdullah tried to strew in the AFSPA din was resurrected on Friday to regain headlines and divert public attention, at least on the home turf. The Government has appointed a commission of inquiry by a retired Supreme Court judge to probe — beginning next week — ruling National Conference worker Syed Muhammad Yousuf’s custodial death, in which the Chief Minister himself is a suspect.
Political analysts say it is a “lesser evil” to investigate the peculiar custodial death rather than face a public debate on the embarrassment of receiving “no” from the Centre on the AFSPA despite his declarations that it was not an option for him to accept.
Sources privy to the Chief Minister’s latest Delhi sojourn said he was asked to wind up the AFSPA debate as time was not ripe to take a decision on it. His unusual meeting with the Chief of Army Staff was arranged to spread a notion that the armed forces attained extreme importance while deciding on crucial matters like revocation of AFSPA.
Governor NN Vohra, who was also in Delhi when Abdullah was holding a series of meetings, actually conveyed the Centre’s decision to the Chief Minister - that the debate on AFSPA has been sought to be closed. The Governor is understood to have told Abdullah that “sentiments of one billion people are to be considered” before taking a decision on crucial matters. The CM has been conveyed that it would be the Centre’s prerogative to reopen the AFSPA debate when the “time is appropriate”.
Interestingly, after Abdullah’s meeting with the Governor in Jammu, the proposed Cabinet meeting to discuss the AFSPA withdrawal was cancelled.
Sources said that Governor held meetings with several political leaders who have limited or vast influence on public opinion to convey the “Centre’s decision” to them.
But, the situation has plunged the Chief Minister into an embarrassing situation on the home turf. To take the Army establishment head on was viewed as Chief Minister’s attempt to redeem his party’s political ideology that seeks empowerment and independence of people of Jammu and Kashmir. However, the failure has forced him to focus on “governance” issue and to reopen a matter where he is himself a suspect.
Abdullah is completing his three years in office in first week of January. While opposition is gunning for his head, a section of leadership in his coalition partner Congress is seeking rotation of Chief Minister to make good the loss due to “ineffective and callous governance”.
“Abdullah has embarrassed the coalition through his juvenile acts. From mindless killing of innocent people in 2010 to supervision of political corruption, there is no record of misgovernance that Abdullah has not set,” said a senior Congress leader closer to JKPCC Chief Saifuddin Soz.
“The Chief Minister has lowered the esteem of the institution of Chief Minister”, Opposition PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti told The Pioneer.
Observers say that through Commission of Inquiry the Chief Minister would try to exonerate himself from the allegation that Syed Yousuf was killed on his behest and that he patronized the corruption in National Conference. Syed Yousuf died in the custody of Crime Branch of J&K Police on September 30, hours after he was quizzed and handed over to police by Chief Minister at his official residence. The Chief Minister said that Yousuf conceded having accepted a whopping amount of Rs 1.18 crore from two NC workers to get them berths in legislative council or the upper house of state legislature. One of the bribe givers was Chief Minister’s representative in his constituency Ganderbal.
The Opposition raked up the issue to the extent that at one point in time, Abdullah’s chair seemed to be trembling.
“This is an interesting phenomenon. Abdullah raked up AFSPA issue to subvert voices on his poor governance following Syed Yousuf episode. Now, he has resurrected Syed Yousuf case to divert AFSPA focus. This explains how much he is struggling”, said editor of Honour newsmagazine Rashid Ahmad.
