The National Conference (NC) led by Farooq Abdullah was ready to ally with the BJP after the 2014 assembly elections. Not only that, it was ready to play second fiddle and had no objection to the BJP having its own chief minister in Jammu & Kashmir, senior BJP leader Devender Singh Rana said in Jammu on September 3.
Going a step further, Rana said that he even knows the name of the BJP leader who was proposed as a possible CM. However, he refused to disclose the identity of the person saying the NC’s proposal was outright rejected by the BJP. It was the BJP’s rejection of the NC’s offer which stymied the latter’s efforts to continue in power, he said.
Way beyond 2014 assembly elections, the NC tried to have some understanding with the BJP even later. These efforts were made time and again and continued till late 2021 when the NC was ready to align with the BJP. In early 2016, after the death of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, there was a period of “lull’’ and uncertainty, Rana reminded the reporters. Even at that time, Farooq Abdullah tried to reach some understanding with the BJP but was rebuffed, Rana said.
“Let me reveal something you may not be knowing. In 2014, NC was reduced to just 15 seats in assembly polls (from 28 in 2008). A party (NC) delegation headed by Omar Abdullah went to Delhi to have parleys with the senior leadership of the BJP. I was part of the delegation. We met top BJP ministers in Delhi and requested them for BJP-NC alliance in J&K,” Rana said addressing a press conference.
“NC was even ready for a BJP Chief Minister in J&K. I know the person who was going to be the BJP CM in J&K but I will not,” Rana said. He said Omar and his team had to return empty handed despite repeated requests for an alliance. “The BJP leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah who was then the BJP chief didn’t agree for an alliance with the NC,” Rana said.
At that time, Farooq Abdullah was abroad and discussions were held with him before Omar went to Delhi to meet the BJP leaders. It bears mention here that a NC-Congress alliance government headed by Omar Abdullah as CM had ruled J&K from January 2009 to late 2014. It also means that the NC was ready to jettison the Congress to align with the BJP in 2014 had the latter acceded to its request.
Rana said back home in Kashmir, late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed offered an alliance with the BJP that was later worked out. Lashing out at Omar, Rana said it was shocking to see him making statements that Ram Madhav was in touch with the PDP nowadays. “Has he forgotten that that he himself was grown in the political lap of BJP? Has he forgotten that he served as a BJP minister?” he asked.
Rana’s statement was a reminder to Omar that he had served as Minister of State at the Centre in a government headed by late Atal Behari Vajpayee. At one time, the NC of Abdullahs was a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and there were four party MPs who extended support to the Vajpayee government.
Rana said that the claims being made by the NC that the name of Shankaracharya hill in Srinagar will be changed to Takht-e-Sulaiman will never be fulfilled as long as BJP is present in J&K. He said that it seems that the NC wants to revive stone-pelting by claiming that the party will ensure release of all “stone pelters.”
“We will not allow the return of the era of 2010 summer when dozens of youth were killed in Kashmir,” Rana said, adding that “NC is feeling unnerved over the peaceful atmosphere prevailing in J&K post 2014 and especially post revocation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019.” In 2010 summer months, stone pelting incidents had led to deaths of over 100 youth in Kashmir valley. The unrest stopped after over two months in mid-September and a group of interlocutors was set up to probe the violence that had rocked the Valley.
This group of interlocutors was headed by late Dileep Padgaonkar and its other members were Professor Radha Kumar and former bureaucrat M Y Qureshi. This group had submitted its findings and recommendations to then Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in September 2011 after its one year term ended. However, the Union Home Ministry did not make the report public and it was only in May 2012 that selective leakage to some Delhi-based journalists was done.
It is pertinent to mention that Omar, while speaking to reporters at Kangan, Ganderbal, on Monday had stated that it seems that BJP leader Ram Madhav was in touch with the PDP. By hinting at Ram Madhav’s parleys with the PDP, Omar was insinuating that all parties other than NC were in cahoots with the BJP.
Devender Singh Rana was with the NC till October 2021 for over two decades when he joined the BJP. Rana was considered very close to Omar Abdullah for all the years he was with the NC and much resented by Kashmiris. The cause of resentment was partly the fact that he belonged to Jammu and spoke no Kashmiri (lingua franca of Kashmir). Rana had toured the state extensively with Omar during 2002 assembly polls and had remained Omar’s Man Friday for over two decades.
Rana is the younger brother of Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) since May 2014.
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