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Mulayam snubs Farooq on autonomy for J&K

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah's endeavour to enlist support from opposition politicians for his state's quest for autonomy met with a severe rebuff from Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, a senior official at Jammu & Kashmir House told rediff.com

This is in sharp contrast to the response from politicians like Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, both of whom have favoured more autonomy for the states.

But, according to Samajwadi Party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, Mulayam Singh told Dr Abdullah, "You should not have reason to complain because you are a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance government and are familiar with its mindset."

Another Samajwadi Party official told rediff.com that many opposition parties, including his own, "have not forgiven Dr Abdullah for switching loyalties from the erstwhile United Front to the BJP-led NDA."

Telugu Desam Party chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu and Dr Abdullah were two former United Front leaders who triggered its collapse by going over to the NDA, leaving it to Yadav to announce the front's demise.

"These two leaders [Naidu and Abdullah] drove the last nails in the United Front's coffin," said S Jaipal Reddy, spokesman of the United Front, in an informal discussion with reporters soon after it was disbanded. Reddy is now in the Congress.

But the Samajwadi Party's snub has not discouraged Dr Abdullah who has been touring the country. Shrewdly, he has gone about this job on the eve of the monsoon session of Parliament, which begins on July 24.

Abdullah, however, got an 'excellent reception' from Congress president Sonia Gandhi whom he met recently to win her party's support for his cause. The Congress working committee deliberated on the issue of autonomy for Jammu & Kashmir on Friday and urged that the NDA government and Abdullah's National Conference hold talks on the subject within the framework of the Constitution and the 1975 Indira Gandhi-Sheikh Abdullah accord.

Congress members and National Conference politicians also met at senior party leader Pranab Mukherjee's house recently to exchange views on the Kashmir assembly's autonomy resolution. While the Conference wants the Opposition's support on the issue, it suits the Congress to raise cain over the matter in Parliament.

"Yes, you can be sure we will leave no stone unturned to highlight the BJP government's mishandling of the autonomy resolution in Parliament during the monsoon session from the very first day," said senior party leader Oscar Fernandes.

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