KT NEWS SERVICE SRINAGAR, Aug 16: Envied by his political rivals for his "extra-ordinary luck" in the past, union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad is being chased by crises now particularly in summer.
Last year in summer he had to resign as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir following withdrawal of support by PDP on Amarnath land row.
This summer as the union health minister he is facing crisis again due to the increasing swine flu across the country.
The land row, which had started from Kashmir, engulfed Jammu and also reached different parts of the country causing communal tension.
However, the swine flu started from some parts of country, reached Jammu and finally entered Kashmir.
Whether it was land row or swine flu, prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh had to intervene both the times.
Last summer Manmohan made every effort that PDP should not pull out from the government and that Azad's governments is safeguarded.
He even got in touch, on telephone, with PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and National Conference president , Dr Farooq Abdullah (now minister for renewed energy in union cabinet) prior to the then chief minister's seeking of vote of confidence on the floor of assembly.
But his efforts did not yield positive results.
Yesterday, during the Independence Day speech, Dr Singh said that swine flu should not be allowed to disrupt the normal life and promised all measures to check spread of the disease.
While Azad has no role in the spread of swine flu in the country but he is being made accountable for the measures to check the spread of the disease and avoid further deaths.
As far as land row is concerned, most people here still believe that it was his creation and how he had to finally pay a heavy price for it by losing the chair of chief minister.
Even his political reputation was badly damaged due to the communal tension which mounted across the country.
Political observers feel that in his fight against PDP, Azad tried to use the then governor Lt Gen S K Sinha but got himself used by Raj Bhawan.
The more Azad was mentally and politically close to NC leadership in chief minister's chair, the more he is far from them now.
Even the recent media reports that he was trying to destablise Omar Abdullah led coalition government in the state and wanted to return as chief minister with PDP's support strained his relations with NC.
The reported snubbing of Azad by the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for his attempts to weaken Omar government forced the union health minister to publicly target PCC chief Prof Saif-u-Din Soz.
Azad accused Soz of planting stories in media to tarnish his image.
Till last year Azad had a smooth sailing in politics.
He remained union minister for a long time without contesting a Lok Sabha election from his home state.
The union health minister had not even contested the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir.
It was only after he became the chief minister, he was elected to the state assembly from Bhaderwah.
In 2008 assembly polls, he was again re-elected from the same constituency.
But Azad resigned from assembly after he realised that he could not become the chief minister again.
Subsequently, he returned to central politics through Rajya Sabha and then to the union cabinet.
About us | Advertise | Other Publications | Subscriptions | Weather | Letters | Send Mail Disclaimer: Information is being made available at this site purely as a measure of public facilitation.
While every effort has been made to ensure that the information hosted on this website is accurate CHAIRMAN: VED BHASIN Kashmir Times Group of Publications Edited, printed and published by Prabodh Jamwal Editor-in-Chief, The Kashmir Times, Residency Road, Jammu, J&K, INDIA.
Executive Editor: Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal E-Mail: vbhasin@sancharnet.in, jmt_prabodh@sancharnet.in
