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Elected NC chief for second term
Omar raps New Delhi on ‘fake’ talks, calls
Congress ‘mistress of mistakes’

From Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Dec 19: Elected as president of Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (NC) for the second consecutive term of three years, Omar Abdullah today asked both, militants as well as security forces, allow peace to return without any more mayhem and bloodshed. Describing his party’s support to Ghulam Nabi Azad’s coalition Government as conditional, Sheikh Abdullah’s grandson berated Congress party as a mistress of mistakes for Kashmir. He complained publicly that Dr Manmohan Singh’s Government at the Centre was "completely non-serious" with regard to holding the exercise of talks with the Kashmiri leadership. According to him, the Congress-led coalition Government’s Kashmir policy was "nothing but to humiliate Kashmiri leaders in the trap of a dialogue process" which, according to him, had not moved a step forward beyond the courtesy of a cup of tea in the last few years.

Thirty-five-year-old lonely son of the former J&K Chief Minister and NC’s Chief Patron, Dr Farooq Abdullah, Omar was elected as his Party’s president for the second consecutive term of three years today. Nearly three thousand delegates of the party—including almost all former Ministers and sitting and former legislators—had gathered at NC’s headquarters of Nawai-e-Subh for Omar Abdullah’s re-election as president. Chief of NC’s Legislature Party and former Minister Abdur Rahim Rather, who had been appointed as Returning Officer for the election, declared Omar elected as president of the party after all the delegates in attendance raised their hands for the young leader. Rather announced that 6,662 delegates had been elected in the current organisational elections—3,307 in Kashmir and 3,355 in Jammu. Even as he was supposed to be proposed by only one elected delegate, Omar had been proposed by as many 2,474 delegates. According to Rather, they included all of NC’s MPs, MLAs, MLCs, District presidents and Block presidents.

Senior NC leader and former Speaker of Legislative Assembly, Ali Mohammad Naik, administered the customary oath of office to Omar Abdullah amid clapping of hands and high-pitch slogans from an enthusiastic gathering. Omar had been elected as NC’s president for his maiden term on the eve of the Assembly elections of 2002, which his party lost albeit retaining the status of the state’s single largest mainstream political party. In contrast to the high-voltage coronation event of 2002, Dr Abdullah and Omar were the two-odd leaders of the party who addressed the election gathering today. Party’s anthem lehra ae Kashmir ke jhande was also missing this time.

Holding firmly his belief that Azadi and accession to Pakistan were impossible and impracticable, Omar Abdullah reiterated that granting autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir was the only solution to the Kashmir problem. He, however, cautioned New Delhi that a lasting solution to the vexed Kashmir dispute would never crystalise in absence of a meaningful dialogue with Pakistan and all shades of political opinion in the State. Omar dismissed New Delhi’s current format of talks with Mirwaiz faction of the separatist Hurriyat Conference as "an exercise in futility" and alleged that the Centre was "simply humiliating the separatist leaders". "They (New Delhi) called Mirwaiz and his colleagues for talks as many as four times in the last three years. What have they achieved other than a cup of tea? Don’t you have any other means to humiliate the Kashmiri leaders?" Omar asked the Centre. He claimed that talks between the Hurriyat and the Centre had not moved a step forward beyond the courtesy of a cup of tea in the last three years.

Omar argued that Dr Manmohan Singh’s Congress-led Government at the Centre was "completely non-serious" in pursuing a meaningful process of dialogue with the Kashmiri leadership. He narrated his own experience of "meaningless meetings" with the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and asserted that, as of now, New Delhi had no policy to engage the Kashmiri leadership in a meaningful dialogue. "Everybody in Kashmir is ready for talks today. But you people are pushing us to the wall. You people are not sincere in your intentions", Omar addressed the Centre. He said that nine months ago, he was called for a meeting by Patil who announced constitution of a committee to discuss autonomy with the NC. "Thereafter, I met him (Mr Patil) three times and asked him where was his committee and where were its talks with the NC. His reply was ‘don’t go by my words; wait and go by my deeds’. Since that day, I have been waiting and there’s nothing from the Centre", Omar lamented.

"If those people (leaders at the Centre) are not prepared to discuss autonomy with the National Conference, what can they discuss with Mirwaiz who is calling for a solution outside the framework of the Indian Constitution?" Omar asked. Addressing New Delhi, he grumbled: "Why don’t you people say it clearly that India is not going to entertain any talks on Kashmir; That India is determined to crush Kashmir’s insurgency like that of Punjab. What’s this duplicity on Kashmir. If you believe that Kashmir is (India’s) internal matter, what Kashmir are you discussing with Pakistan everywhere from Simla to Lahore and Agra? Why don’t you tell us the truth? We are fed up with listening to the false. Why don’t you make it clear whether or not you are going to give a political package to Jammu and Kashmir?"

Omar asserted that merely an economic package would not alter the situation in Kashmir. "We have seen enough of such packages from Rajiv Gandhi’s Rs 1000 cr to Manmohan Singh’s Rs 24,000 cr. These haven’t brought a solution to Kashmir. If you people are serious about holding talks, please call everybody from Mirwaiz to Geelani, from Yasin Malik to Shabir Shah and from Omar Abdullah to Mehbooba Mufti. This problem is going to remain until you hold talks sincerely with all shades of political opinion in Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh" Omar asserted while addressing the Centre. For the first time in his political career, the NC chief asserted that both, militants as well as security forces, should immediately vacate Kashmir as "our people have been subjected to enough of torture and violence".

Making frontal attacks on the Centre, Omar said that New Delhi had been making and repeating mistakes with regard to Jammu and Kashmir since the day Sheikh Abdullah was arrested by a soldier in August 1953. According to him, it was high time for New Delhi to apologise to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for its "mistakes of five decades". He believed that such a gesture from the Centre would mean suspension of the Kashmir trouble for the next one thousand years. Citing the recent example of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s "humiliating exit from power", Omar said that Congress party was not a friend of even its friends. "This is the treatment with a friend. Their treatment with others can only be imagined", Omar said.

Turning to Pakistan and Kashmir’s separatist leaders, Omar said that after having 100,000 Kashmiris killed, the champions of Azadi were finally suggesting what Sheikh Abdullah had 50 years ago. "All of them say it today that gun is no solution to the Kashmir problem. They talk of self-rule and self-governance. Sheikh Abdullah would call it autonomy. If this is the solution, what was the need of getting one hundred thousands Kashmiris killed?", Omar asked the Hurriyat and Pakistan. Having returned from Kabul the other day, Omar narrated the miseries of the people of Afghanistan and said that the gun culture had taken a huge toll of human lives in that country and rendered every second Afghan maimed.

Omar announced to the highly responsive crowd that NC would establish its offices at Mujahid Manzil after 16 years of militancy in near future and the party’s next Presidential election would be held there in three years. He asked his party workers to prepare themselves for the next Assembly elections, which, according to him, would be held anytime in the next three years. He alleged that Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s PDP-led coalition Government left no stone unturned to crush and kill the Kashmiris under the smokescreen of healing touch. Dismissing Mufti’s slogan of "goli nahi boli" as a facade, Omar asked who of the militants had the former Chief Minister brought to the mainstream or on the table of dialogue. He took credit for his party that during the NC rule, Hizbul Mujahideen’s seniormost commanders had held a round of talks with the Centre.

Suggesting NC’s support to Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Government as conditional, Omar sought to make it clear that his party would assert as a responsible Opposition in all matters of public interest. He cautioned Congress against interpreting NC’s support to Azad as a weakness of his party and asserted that it was in fact NC’s strength. Omar observed that unlike Mufti’s, Azad’s Government was not "vindictive against National Conference".

Earlier, former Chief Minister and NC’s Chief Patron, Dr Farooq Abdullah, asserted that "only a solution that was acceptable to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, India and Pakistan" would be the lasting, durable and ultimate solution to the Kashmir problem. "We have made it clear to India, Pakistan and the whole world that any solution without ascertaining and accommodating the aspirations of the people of the State would not be acceptable", he said. Dr Abdullah proposed a round-table conference of all Kashmiri leaders and asserted that an agreed draft of the solution could be passed on to New Delhi and Islamabad. He demanded all Kashmiri leaders, from Omar Abdullah to Mirwaiz Umar and sons of late Abdul Gani Lone, should sit together, exchange their views and reach a consensus solution which could be submitted to India and Pakistan for their consideration and sanction.

Kansal posted MD SRTC 12 senior officers transferred

Excelsior Special Correspondent

JAMMU, Dec 19: The State Cabinet, which met here today under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, approved the transfers and postings of 12 senior officers in the administration.

GD Wadhwa, Financial Commissioner, Social Welfare, has been transferred and posted as Financial Commissioner, Labour and Employment in place of Samuel Verghese.

Mr Verghese, has been transferred and posted as Principal Secretary, Social Welfare vice G D Wadhwa.

PS Betab, Special Secretary, Industries and Commerce, has been transferred and posted as Special Secretary, Information vice Mohammad Yousuf Dar.

Rohit Kansal, awaiting orders of posting on completion of training, has been posted as MD SRTC relieving Shalinder Kumar, Special Secretary to Chief Minister, of additional charge.

SM Desalphine, shall continue to function as DG, IMPA.

Bashir Ahmad Khawaja, Special Secretary, Finance, has been transferred and posted as Commissioner, Commercial Taxes against available vacancy.

Gowhar Ahmed, awaiting orders of posting after recall from Accountability Commission, has been posted as Special Secretary, Health and Medical Education vice Parshotam Kumar.

Sheikh Mushtaq Ahmed, Special Secretary, Forests, has been transferred and posted as Director Social Welfare, Kashmir. He will relieve Deputy Director Social Welfare of the additional charge.

Mohammad Yousuf Dar, Special Secretary, Information, has been transferred and posted as Director Employment.

Parshotam Kumar, Additional Secretary, Health and Medical Education, has been posted as Additional Secretary, Education against available vacancy.

IA Ashai, awaiting orders of posting, has been posted as Additional Secretary, Industries and Commerce vice PS Betab.

Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Additional Secretary in CM’s Secretariat, has been transferred and posted as Additional Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department.

VC Sharma, awaiting orders of posting, has been posted as MD Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBC Development Corporation.