Beig quits, breather for J&K coalition

Saleem Pandit / TNN / Sep 3, 2006, 00:24 IST

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J&K deputy CM Muzaffar Hussain Beig who trigerred a rift between the coalition partners, Cong and PDP announced his resignation from the ministry.

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir deputy chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Beig who trigerred a rift between the coalition partners, Congress and People's Democratic Party (PDP) announced his resignation from the ministry on Saturday.
The differences surfaced after chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in course of allocating portfolios to newly-inducted ministers retained Beig as finance minister, ignoring a request by the PDP chief, Mehbooba Mufti asking Azad to take away the finance portfolio from Beig.
Mehbooba flew into a rage and demanded that Azad adhere to PDP's decision on who it choose to be in the Cabinet. She also accused the Congress leaders of meddling in internal affairs of the PDP.
As the rift between PDP and Congress fuelled speculation that the government itself was shaky, more grist was added to the mill by National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah wading into the controversy.

Rumour was rife with talk of Abdullah promising to pitch in with MLAs in case the Congress-PDP rift widened to a break up.
Beig said he had no part in being kept in the Cabinet and slight his party. "I will meet Azad soon and thank him for the confidence he has reposed in me and then request him to relieve me of the responsibilities," Beig told reporters. Beig, former president of PDP, is also holding portfolios of planning, law and parliamentary affairs.

The trouble started after Mehbooba asked Azad to give finance portfolio to Tariq Hameed Karra, a Mehbooba loyalist.
However, Mehbooba now wants the deputy chief minister's office to go to Abdul Aziz Kargar, who was elected PDP legislative leader, and the finance ministry to Ghulam Hassan Mir, whose suspension from the party was revoked on Thursday.
"I was not party to the (Azad) decision. I did not know about it. I was surprised when I came to know about his (chief minister's) decision. I thought I would request the CM to change his decision and not allow any controversy to develop between the PDP and the Congress," he said.
Asked whether Azad would ask him to continue, Beig said, "He (Azad) can advise me but not force me to stay. It is my decision to resign. I do not want to remain in office." On whether he plans to quit PDP, Beig said he would consult his supporters and voters before taking any decision.
"If they ask me to resign from the assembly seat as well as PDP, I will act accordingly."
"I was the co-author of common minimum programme (CPM) framed in 2002 after the coalition agreed to form the government. I never wanted to create any misunderstanding between the two partners," Beig said.
He said on August 30, a day before the portfolios were announced by Azad, PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba, had expressed their confidence in him but the next day they wrote a latter to the chief minister asking him to take away finance portfolio from him.
"What has pinched me is that they (PDP leadership) did not even inform me about the decision to strip my portfolios. I would have resigned honourably."
He said Sayeed was unhappy over creation of eight new districts, appointment of S S Bloeria as head of the de-limitation committee for the creation of new assembly segments.
"I don't believed in double speak and even propounded the idea of self-rule as one of the options for the resolution of Kashmir issue but within the constitutions of both the countries," he said.

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