Sheikh Nazir: NC’s powerful General Secretary who witnessed party’s glorious and nightmarish days

Srinagar: Having worked as the most powerful General Secretary of National Conference (NC) for decades together, Sheikh Nazir Ahmad had witnessed both the glorious days of his party and later nightmare-like bad days also.

He was a strong bridge between the family of NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and their party leaders, workers, and supporters.

   

At a time when his seventh death anniversary is being observed, NC is gearing up for yet another electoral battle to stay relevant.

Sheikh Nazir had witnessed the days when his party was so strong and popular that people jokingly used to say that even an “electric poll can win an election in Kashmir if it gets an NC’s mandate”.

But then he also saw the bad days for NC when Omar Abdullah, the grandson of Sheikh Abdullah, considered the tallest leader of Kashmir, lost in 2002 assembly polls from Ganderbal to a lesser-known PDP leader, Qazi Muhammad Afzal.

Sheikh Nazir also saw the three-time chief minister, Farooq Abdullah, also getting defeated in the parliament election from the Srinagar-Budgam constituency in 2014.

But then politics for a politician is a process of victories and defeats, ups and downs, and of getting relevant or being irrelevant from time to time.

This process continues throughout the life of a political leader.

However, it is naturally shocking and very upsetting for the junior members of the big political families to lose when their elders had in past ruled the hearts and minds of common people for long.

Some years after the defeat, Omar finally became the chief minister with Congress support in 2009.

Farooq was also back in Parliament as NC MP in 2017 and is busy devising and executing the strategy for the next assembly poll.

Sheikh Nazir had a strong grip on the NC organisation and its matters. Since the time of Sheikh to Farooq and then Omar, he was in regular touch with workers and leaders from Kashmir, Jammu, and Ladakh.

They would visit him, give their feedback, and apprise him about their problems.

Many believe that he used to play an important role in deciding the mandates for assembly polls.

NC ministers would never wish to displease him – some out of respect and some out of other considerations.

There was also an impression in some NC cadres that unlike most party leaders he had not diluted his basic political ideology.

Later, because of his age factor and ill health, his area of wider interaction with party workers got affected.

That was also one of the reasons that top party leadership while in power lost touch and feel of the ground situation during the time from 1996 to 2002 when Farooq Abdullah was the chief minister for the third and final time.

The leadership kept believing what was being fed to them by a mixed circle of goody-goody elements, whose only aim is to remain close to power centres for their interests, and who mostly keep saying pleasing but misleading things to them.

This circle made Farooq believe that all was well and that NC could win the 2002 assembly polls spectacularly.

So sometime just before the assembly polls, Farooq made an important move.

He appointed Omar Abdullah as NC president on June 23, 2002, with the objective that he would take over as chief minister after September-October 2002 “victory”.

Interesting a circle trying to get close to Omar started describing him as chief minister in waiting.

But Omar himself seemed to be having some inkling of the changing ground situation.

He told his party leaders and workers to be disciplined and not to take things for granted.

Addressing them at a rally after he was made NC president, Omar said that gone were the days when people used to say that an electric pole could win if it gets an NC ticket.

Omar at that time was upset with an incident of infighting among some of the leaders and workers at the rally. Omar’s prediction shortly came true in the 2002 poll when he lost from Ganderbal.

Earlier, with an eye on 2002 assembly polls, the Farooq Abdullah government tried to play a masterstroke politically by passing a pro-autonomy resolution in the state assembly in June 2000 and forwarding it to the NDA government-led by AtalBihari Vajpayee for consideration.

The resolution demanded the restoration of the pre-1953 position.

The Centre was unhappy with Farooq for moving the resolution in the assembly but he assured them that the resolution would be only discussed and not adopted.

The NC government crossed the red line and passed the resolution and sent it to the union government for consideration.

Vajpayee at that time was on a foreign tour.

On his return, the union cabinet met and rejected the resolution, causing much embarrassment to the Farooq government.

For several weeks, a hurt Farooq did not speak to media nor was he seen at any government function. On July 11, 2000, Farooq’s mother, Begum Akbar Jehan, also known as Madre Meharbaan, passed away.

Top central government leadership including Vajpayee, L K Advani, and George Fernandes arrived in Srinagar and visited the Abdullah family for offering their condolences.

It was during a brief media interaction here at that time that Vajpayee revealed that he had invited the Farooq government to Delhi for talks.

It just proved a face-saving gesture for NC as the talks ended only after a few rounds without making any headway. NC leaders till recently were alleging that PDP was created by the Centre to counter its autonomy-related moves.

Even today NC while paying tributes to Sheikh Nazir has reiterated that it would continue its efforts for the rights of the people.

Critics of NC say that the party never showed the seriousness and commitment when it had the strength to get something.

And now when such things seem out of question, the party leaders are again raising such issues for known political reasons.

Indira Gandhi categorically told Sheikh Abdullah that the clock cannot be turned back when he demanded autonomy before taking over as the chief minister in 1975.

Presently, some other factors in the changing political environment may help NC politically.

But the party’s reiteration that it would fight and get back what has been withdrawn can seem unimpressive to people in general and voters in particular given the track record of NC.

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