Ishfaq-ul-Hassan | India Tomorrow
SRINAGAR, MARCH 22—When National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah was released on March 13, people thought he would roar again and pick-up threads from where he had left on August 4 when he warned the Centre of catastrophe if the special status is revoked.
Instead, Farooq sounded more diplomatic saying he would “not talk politics” till all detained leaders including his son Omar Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti are released. Seven months in house-arrest seem to have changed Farooq. Gone are his roars, one-liners and tongue-in-cheek humour.
“I will talk on political issues until everyone else is released. My freedom is incomplete”, he said.
Farooq’s statement created a flutter across Kashmir as people were expecting the `Lion’ to roar again. Even social media was flooded with memes after Farooq’s silence.
Even before people could fathom a changed Farooq, former RAW chief A.S. Dulat dropped a bombshell. Dulat told a news portal some interesting details of his “secret contacts” with Farooq Abdullah.
In the interview, Dulat revealed that he visited Srinagar on February 12 to meet Farooq. He said the government had cleared the visit and, additionally, national security adviser Ajit Doval was fully aware of it.
Dulat and Farooq‘s friendship dates back when the former was heading a spy agency. Dulat was at the helm when Farooq refused to release Jaish-e-Mohommad chief Masood Azhar from Kot Balwal jail in lieu of passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC 814 in 1999. The friendship of the two blossomed over the years no matter Farooq’s love-hate relationship with his allies including BJP.
Dulat’s “revelations” created a stir among the people. Observers started inferring motives with his release. Even the president of newly formed Apni Party Altaf Bukhari went to the extent to claim that political leaders chose detention because they could not face people.
Since his release, Farooq has maintained complete silence on the special status. Neither has he talked about the revocation of Article 370, nor has he come out with political road map for restoring statehood. Though he referred Jammu and Kashmir as the state, he did not clarify his stand on how to fight for statehood.
Later sensing the undercurrent, Farooq tried to shift focus on the prisoners to gain public sympathy.
“Before we allow politics to divide us, I appeal to all political leaders to unite behind the call to the union government to bring back all detainees from J&K in prisons outside pending their release. While we would like to see them all released as soon as possible, pending that they should be shifted to J&K. This is a humanitarian demand and I hope others will join me in placing this demand in front of the government of India”, he said.
On the other side, Apni Party is trying to step into the shoes of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad who replaced Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah when he was ousted from power by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru.
“People of Jammu and Kashmir had not realized the essence of Statehood until August 5. Statehood is a reference to the glorious past and a privilege for solidification of the idea of pluralism and respectful coexistence in Jammu and Kashmir like any other State”, Apni Party delegation led by president Altaf Bukhari told Prime Minister.
