Srinagar, July 13: The internal bickering within the state Congress has showed up again with a group of senior party leaders taking on Pradesh Congress Committee chief Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz for not evolving consensus within the party on participation in the All Party Meet convened by the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah here Monday. The meeting was convened to find a way out of the prevailing crisis in the Valley.
Without naming Soz, who was present at Monday’s All Party Meeting, the group of Congress leaders termed as “unfortunate and undemocratic the state party leadership’s attitude” of not calling the meeting of both the Congress Executive and Legislature Party prior to participation in the All Party Meet.
“It was against the democratic values of the party. We have issued a joint statement to register our protest that the party leadership should have held deliberations to seek valuable suggestions from the senior leaders on the issue,” senior Congress leader and former Social Welfare minister, Abdul Gani Vakil told Greater Kashmir.
More importantly the diatribe against Soz has jointly come from CLP Leader Choudhary Muhammad Aslam, legislators Haji Ali Muhammad Bhat, Jehangir Mir, Abdul gani Vakil, Subhash Gupta, Viqar Rasool, Ashok Kumar and Naresh Gupta besides former MLCs P Namgyal, former ministers Haji Nisar, Gulchain Singh Charak, Suman Bhagat and Gharu Ram.
“Congress represents democracy in its real sense and the manner in which JK congress leadership is functioning is going to inflict unprecedented damage to the party in the days ahead,” a joint statement issued by the group said.
The leaders, most of who are believed to be loyal to former Chief Minister and Union Minister for Health, Ghulam Nabi Azad, have said “height of autocracy can be gauged from the fact that neither the CLP leader, nor Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand were taken into confidence (by Soz). More shocking is the fact that JKPCC leadership preferred not to invite both the leaders for the All Party Meeting and went on their own without any consultation or deliberation.”
The Congress was represented at the meeting besides Soz, by senior leaders Taj Mohiuddin, Peerzada Muhammad Sayeed and Aijaz Ahmad Khan.
The party is marred with factionalism for a long time now with insiders saying that there are two groups—one each close to Soz and Azad.
“In complete contravention to party stand, the state party leadership never discussed the crisis surrounding the ruling coalition in the state, in which Congress is a partner, and hence failed to put forth its point of view properly during the all party meeting,” the leaders said.
Another senior Congress leader said it was not for the first time that the party leadership had ignored suggestions from senior leaders to put forth party’s viewpoint before the government on critical issues.
“We were never invited for our viewpoint on issues like inter-district recruitment bill, central university and other similar issues,” he said.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, Prof Soz said the All Party Meeting was called by the JK chief minister and not him. “There was little time to hold meeting at party level prior to participation in the crucial meeting,” Prof Soz said.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST