After lying low for close to two years, PDP leader and former J&K deputy chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Beigh is back in the spotlight after alleging on the floor of the Assembly that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah figured in the CBI’s list of suspects in the Srinagar sex scandal of 2006. And while the drama of Omar resigning and then resuming office has died down, there is renewed interest in Beigh and his politics, fuelled in part by the National Conference’s counter-accusation, in the form of a questionnaire, in the Assembly about his “liaisons”.

Beigh, the man and the politician, isn’t easy to pin down. His life has followed two trajectories: one as a leading lawyer and the other as a major politician. But overriding both is the story of a boy from a poor background rising to make his mark in the courtroom as well as the political arena.

In November 2005, when Beigh was appointed deputy chief minister of J&K, it seemed to be the climax of a long journey for the impoverished but intelligent boy from the isolated village of Wahidina in Baramulla district. His dismissal saw the first-ever public protests —including a complete shutdown in his constituency Baramulla— in support of a pro-India politician in a stridently separatist town.

Despite studying in a primary school with no electricity, Beigh stood first in the entire state in the Class VIII board exams. He also topped the state in his matriculation examination and then again in college, which he attended in Baramulla. His brilliant academic run continued in Delhi University, where he studied law: Beigh came first in the combined university examination.

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