Abdul Rashid Khan
The untimely death of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has left the J&K in the state of political uncertainty. His death has definitely created a big vacuum in the mainstream politics. He was the last political figure from the first generation politicians who was matured enough to guide the people. Going through his profile, he had done his post graduation and LLB from Aligarh Muslim University. After returning from Aligarh, he did not show much interest in his legal profession but was keen to join state politics. He ultimately joined politics and in his earlier political career, he learnt the art of politics under the guidance of late D.P. Dhar, G.M.Sadiq, Syeed Mir Qasim and M.L. Fothedar. Despite having different political ideology, his friend ship with P.L.Handoo continued even till last. After G.M.Sadiq and Mir Qasim, if there was any politician who strengthened the roots of Congress, it was only Late Mufti sahib. It was during his time as president of state Congress, that the Indira-Sheik Abdullah accord came into force and N.C and Congress coalition Government under the leadership of Sheik Abdullah was formed. It goes to his credit that he worked day and night in strengthening the Congress party at a time when the tall leader like Sheik Abdullah was ruling the state. He was a self made politician who by dint of his hard work became the President of State Congress Party and later on the Chief minister of the State. He was not only active in state politics, but also showed his mettle in the national politics and served as union cabinet minister for tourism and later on held the important portfolio of Home in the V.P. Singh’s Government. He was the only Muslim politician who had served as the Union home minister since India achieved its independence.
Mufti Sahib was a matured politician who knew the art of politics well. He was a crafty and political maneuverer who would give political direction in various political situations at different times and had a capability to work against the tide. His political career was not so smooth but had seen lots of ups and downs in his political life of more than fifty years.
Though on few occasions I had a chance to meet him in different official capacity and found him a soft spoken, calm, reserved and seasoned politician who would speak less but listen more. It was during his tenure in 2003, I was posted as the head of State Crime Department. During my short stint of one and half year, the Crime Department succeeded in solving many heinous and sensational crime and earned a good name. For short period of six months when I was transferred as IGP modernization at police HQRS, Mufti sahib who was the C.M that time summoned me in his office in March 2005 and said that the J&K Traffic is in total mess and directed me to take over as the head of this wing. Thank Allah (swa) that I rose to the occasion and successfully came to his and later on Azad sahib expectations and gained their full confidence.
Mufti Sahib had a God given gift of selecting a right person for the right job. He was such a visionary that in 2003, he picked up Masud Choudhary, then a senior police officer and appointed him as the V.C. Of BGSB University Rajouri. What Masud Choudhry did and how he built up this university from a scratch, is itself a history. He created a strong infrastructure and base for this university as a founder V.C. And later on due to his extraordinary good work he got one more term as V.C. His appointment as V.C. is a real success story and the credit goes to Mufti Sahib as the C.M.
He never gave any provocative statement which could hurt any one. He would stick to his statements and would always remain serious while making political statements. With the death of Mufti Sahib PDP has lost their patron and able leader, Mehbooba ji a dare father and guide. The people in general would remember him as an experienced and matured politician.
Mehbooba ji who is now in line to take over as new head of the state is capable to run the state administration successfully provided she makes her own decisions and not guided by the sycophants. One thing which goes to her credit is that she has never shown eagerness to take over as head of the state like other politicians. She could have been the C.M even during 2003 as it was because of her hard work and efforts in the field that the PDP had won 21 seats. This fact was also endorsed by her father by making the statement before her death in the month of November 2015 that her daughter Mehbooba ji is closely associated with her party workers and has done lot of work in the field for strengthening her party base and deserves to be next C.M. This proved to be prophetic statement of late Mufti Sahib. Since the coalition partners are not on same wave length because of the ideological and political differences, it is not therefore so easy to step into this hot seat. As she is going to make history by becoming the first woman C.M., she has to just revisit the political history from 2003 and particularly go through the chapter of political upheavals of 2008 and learn some lessons from it. She can take the support of some of her colleagues, whose performance has remained good. So far as the public opinion goes, there is no doubt that the education and PWD departments had shown some signs of improvement during past ten months of her father’s rule. For good governance she has to rise above the caste, creed and regional politics and defeat the elements who are bent upon creating wedge between the two regions of Jammu and Kashmir. She has also to do a bit so that no damage is caused to the ethos and culture of Kashmiris. It is also essential that if her Government succeeds in retrieving at least two of our power projects from NHPC which are due to us, she can regain the ground, her party has lost during the last ten months of PDP- BJP rule. By doing so, the state can over come the problem of power shortages which the people of Kashmir face during harsh winter and the people of Jammu face during hot summer. This could also give the impetus to our economy particularly in tourism and industrial sector.
(The author is former IGP Rawalpora- Srinagar)
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