New Delhi:Former Union Minister Karan Singh hailed Ghulam Nabi Azad as the 'best Chief Minister Jammu and Kashmir has had so far' as he launched Azad’s autobiography 'Azaad' here on Wednesday. "Sorry Farooq Sahib, but I would say that Ghulam Nabi Azad's tenure as the Chief Minister of J&K (2005-2008) was the best tenure of any CM in the region," Singh said, as he apologized to Farooq Abdullah, the former three-time CM of J&K, sitting in the audience.
Further singing praises of the former Congress leader, Singh said, “During that period, there was a curb on corruption, and a lot of development work was accomplished in the domain of health infrastructure and others.” Singh's comments came in the presence of the former three-time CM of J&K Farooq Abdullah who was among the VIP audience sitting in the front row in a packed hall and listening intently to Karan Singh. Abdullah refused to react to the comment.
Later, Karan Singh recalled his memories of the mid-2000s and highlighted how the late PDP supremo Mufti Mohammad Sayeed created roadblocks as he wanted to continue his tenure as the CM for the next three years. "And this was when it was already decided by the Congress-PDP alliance that both Mufti and Azad would serve the erstwhile state for three years each," he said.
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"National Conference had 28 seats, Congress had 21 while PDP had bagged 16 seats. At some point, Sonia Gandhi ji decided to invite PDP chief Mufti Sayeed to join the government but as Mufti Saheb was, he would never take the simple path; he organized things in such a way that he insisted on becoming CM when the Congress had 21 MLAs and the PDP had only 16. He created such a campaign that it would be better if he would've continued as the CM," said Singh.
He later said that when the matter came to the Congress Working Committee, AK Antony was tasked with giving feedback on the issue. "But somehow I realized that all is not well. When Antony opened the deliberations, he was extremely generous and I sensed that all was not well. He was saying things that Sonia ji wanted to hear. When my turn came, I put my foot down. I said if you don’t give three years to Ghulam Nabi Azad, why should people vote for the Congress?" Singh said.
He also emphasized that there were always some talks that the Chief Ministers in Kashmir are always from Muslim majority, but Azad's tenure was the only time when "J&K got a CM from Jammu province". He also recalled his memories around the Amarnath agitation in Kashmir back in 2008. "Kashmir then burnt for 2 days, while Jammu burned for 2 months. And then there was Geelani Sahab (Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a separatist who died in 2021) who for 60 years did things that we all know," the erstwhile Union Minister added.
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