Farooq pleases his angry flock

Farooq pleases his angry flock
Aasha Khosa

New Delhi, July 18: Farooq Abdullah today extended his visit to the capital by a day reportedly to ``give a role'' to his five senior Cabinet colleagues, who were miffed at being sidelined in Abdullah's discussions with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee yesterday.

Sources said at least three ministers put their foot down on what they felt was Abdullah's ``arbitrary'' way of dealing with the autonomy issue after his meeting with the Prime Minister. They wondered whether they mattered and for what purpose had they been brought to the capital if they were being kept out of the talks. The ministers reportedly told Abdullah that their ``empty-handed return would become a public embarrassment for the party in Kashmir.''

So Abdullah and his teammates, Works minister Mohiuddin Shah, Education minister Mohommad Shafi, Revenue Minister Abdul Rahim Rather, Law Minister P L Handoo and Industries minister B R Bali, met Vajpayee this morning. After this meeting, Abdullah threw the ball into the Centre's court by announcing that his five Cabinet colleagues were his nominees to the yet-to-be constituted joint Centre-state inter-ministerial committee to deliberate on the autonomy report.

Abdullah, sources said, had proposed three options to the Centre: formation of inter-ministerial committee; referring the autonomy report to an all-party committee and placing the report before the parliament. The Centre is yet to respond.

Abdullah also met Home Minister L K Advani over a breakfast meeting.Although both declined to give details, sources said they discussed the current insurgency situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Later, Advani said everybody was keen to find a solution to the autonomy issue and that they were moving in the right direction.

Replying to a question whether his party would continue to be part of the NDA, Abdullah said: ``This was never an issue. Only the media linked the two issues.''