Maqbool Malik
JAMMU: Alleging that the high profile PDP leaders Altaf Bukhari, Naeem Akhtar and Haseeb Drabu “backstabbed” former Chief Minister and PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and collaborated with the Centre to undermine their party and government, rebel Tariq Hamid Karra on Monday boycotted Mehbooba Mufti’s swearing-in ceremony and asserted that she was keeping “snakes up her sleeves”.
“During the discussion on finalisation of Council of Ministers, I had certain reservations (over proposed induction of Altaf Bukhari, Naeem Akhter and Haseeb Drabu) which I had put before the party chief in the first meeting in Srinagar”, Karra said. “If you want to come with the same faces, a wrong message will go. Those three PDP MLAs, who are responsible for Mufti government’s failure, were collaborators in back-stabbing him (Mufti),” he told PTI in his first reaction to the PDP-BJP government formation.
Karra hit out at the trio and said “if you continue with them, you are keeping the option of back-stabbing open. You are sending a message that you are rewarding the collaborators who had tried to engineer a coup against you. The message will be wrong”, he addressed Mehbooba.
Karra claimed to have told Mehbooba that God had given her opportunity that should have been used to clean the party. “You replace all of them. You drop one, shift another to council and make somebody else Finance Minister”, he claimed to have pleaded with the party President.
“She promised me that if I was not satisfied with her decision, I would be right to boycott the swearing-in ceremony”, Karra said. “There is no introspection in the party. After every debacle, introspection takes place. She has not done it. She is keeping snakes up her sleeves”, he added.
Karra told a Srinagar-based agency KNS that he had categorically demanded that Bukhari, Akhtar and Drabu be dropped.
“Mufti Sahab did not fail of his own. These three Ministers failed him. These political toddlers and paratroopers have no political stakes. Today, they have become hate icons in the eyes of masses and the government employees especially the teachers, traders, even engineers who were transferred and retransferred at the whims and wishes of select few of these ministers”, Karra said.
“They did not pursue the people’s agenda. They pursued their personal agendas. It is already in the public domain that nepotism was at its peak when they were the ministers. I brought it in the notice of the president as well”, he added.
“The state of confusion between the alliance partners and financial mismanagement at central and the state level was the handiwork of the self-styled economic wizard. This he did to make himself indispensable so that he would always call and ask to remove the confusion which overtly and covertly was his own creation. During Mufti Sahab’s time, this self-styled economic wizard was aptly named as dream merchant.
He misrepresented and misquoted both the alliance partners, leading to the present situation”, Karra said.
“As far the other two hate icons, one was dreaming of becoming Maulana Abul Kalam Azad of Jammu and Kashmir by demolishing the very vitals of the prevalent education system. He was more idealistic than practical which angered a community which was always appreciative and supportive of PDP. At times he projects himself to be the saviour of education system but at the same time projects himself to be the savior of tourism of Kashmir. He is so obsessed by the tourism department that he does not hesitate to send small time employees and even medium-rung workers to tell Mehboobaji that he alone could save tourism”, Karra said.
“I am representative of these communities in the party who suffered due to these three ministers,” he said. He claimed that Farooq Abdullah in 1996 had saved the state from coming under the rule of Kukka Parray. “I too acted on times and saved the state from coming under the rule of today’s Kukka Parrays,” he said.
Bukhari calls Karra a chameleon
In his reaction to the allegations levelled on him, senior PDP leader and former Minister of Works Syed Altaf Bukhari said: “Karra has been changing stands every then and now. He is a chameleon. He has been changing colours since the day BJP-PDP coalition was formed last year in the state. I have nothing personal against Tariq Karra. I respect him as a senior but the way he has been changing colours is utterly disgraceful.
Asked why he had been dropped by Mehbooba Mufti, Bukhari said he had family relations with the Muftis and that it was only this relation that made him contest elections in 2014 “It is the prerogative of the chief minister to choose the cabinet. I respect her decision and have no grudge. My being the minister or otherwise would not affect my association with the PDP. I would continue to strive for strengthening it,” Bukhari said. He maintained further that he would continue to work for the overall development of Srinagar and would not allow anyone to ignore the summer capital at any cost. “I can assure you that no one can afford to ignore Srinagar. We will act as the pressure group for Srinagar’s growth and development. We will not vanish but will keep fighting for Srinagar. This much I can assure you with certainty”, he said.
Bukhari stated that in view of the municipal polls, which are forthcoming, party’s priority would be to sweep the municipal polls and emerge victorious. “We will galvanize our energies to take control of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation. We will win it and we have to focus on that.”
