Autonomy — Opposition leaders snub Farooq

CPI secretary general A B Bardhan reportedly asked Farooq and his five party leaders to give up their "duplicity" on a evolving consensus on autonomy. "National Conference is part of the NDA Government which has taken a decision top reject the autonomy resolution. If your son does not support it, why should you have expectations from us?," he said.

Bardhan also took him to task for keeping mum on the attacks on Christians. He said it was an issue concerning minorities and the Chief Minister should have made a statement in this regard. Bardhan told him that his alliance with the BJP and support from the Opposition would not go together.

Both the Left leaders confessed that their "hearts bled for the Kashmiri people" but the NC’s alliance with the NDA was coming in the way of their support for the autonomy.

Farooq later visited his trusted friend Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party, who asked him why he had not consulted other political parties before taking a final step of passing a resolution in the state assembly. "I don’t even have a copy of the (autonomy) report. How do you expect me to support you without reading it?," Pawar is said to have told Farooq. The NCP’s Jammu and Kashmir wing had been quick to condemn the autonomy as a "conspiracy against the nation" within hours of his meeting with Pawar.

Having thus drawn a virtual blank from most of his "friends" Abdullah flew to Hyderabad to seek support of Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party. Naidu is among the leaders who had voiced their opposition to the autonomy proposal.

Meanwhile, Farooq rejected the suggestion of Central leaders that he submit a list of recommendations on autonomy in view of his talks with the PM, where he had agreed to give up his insistence on pre-1953 status for the state.

Abdullah said: "We have formed a group of ministers (GoM) and we want the same from the Centre… Let this forum discuss and make necessary amendments in our report after convincing us.”

Union Home Minister L K Advani had said on Wednesday that the Centre has sought fresh proposals from the Jammu and Kashmir government on the autonomy issue. Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office, however, said Farooq had agreed to reframe the recommendations and specifically list special political and fiscal powers the state wants. However, Farooq will need to convince his partymen about this; the task will not be easy. PMO sources said the autonomy dialogue was expected to be a long-drawn exercise and no dramatic results were expected soon.