PDP’s Baig ‘missing’ in action

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 29

In May 2014, Peoples Democratic Party senior leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig was elected to Parliament from the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency on the promise that he will better the negative image and perception about Kashmir, created by the National Conference and its leaders in Parliament.

He along with his party had also promised to increase political awareness about Kashmir in Parliament.

However, two years down the line, Baig is mostly getting negative remarks from people and Opposition leaders in the border constituency —- comprising Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora districts —- all share the border with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Baig, who has a master’s from Harvard Law School, has not been visible on the ground as an MP. This has been mainly due to differences with the party leadership over the working of some of the ministers in the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed-led government. However, after Mufti’s death, Baig seems to be back in the party fold.

Among the three PDP MPs from Kashmir, Baig has been absent from Parliament for most part of the two years, leave aside taking up any issue related to Kashmir and creating awareness among MPs.

His attendance is only 10 per cent, poorest among the three PDP MPs. The national average of the MPs’ attendance is 82 per cent. For J&K, it is 51 per cent. During his two-year tenure, he asked only 13 questions —- again the lowest by any PDP MP. The state average of questions is 31 and the national average is 135.

“All these figures depict that Baig is not interested in being an MP and during the last two years, he has done nothing that he can show,” said Riyaz Ahmed, a political analyst from Baramulla.

“People still remember the work done by Baig when he was the Deputy Chief Minister in 2002, primarily for his Assembly constituency of Baramulla and for north Kashmir as a whole. During the last two years, he has been reduced to a nonentity.”

Since his election to Parliament, Baig has not even attended the board meetings of the three districts, which has also created a negative perception about him among people.

Baig admits that he has been “less visible” in the areas. “The MPs have little role and they cannot call officials. One should look at the results. I was at the seventh spot among spenders of the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Funds in the country last year,” Baig said, adding that he has been spending money on various development projects through lawmakers to ensure transparency.

The lawyer-turned-politician said the MPs had to monitor the implementation of various Central schemes and recommend action, if lapses were found.

“I am heading the District Level Vigilance and Monitoring Committees, which is an important instrument for monitoring the implementation of various programmes being undertaken by the Central government that can bring the real change,” he said.

The MP said the Central government in order to electrify rural areas of the state had approved a plan for the state under the Deen Dayal Upadhayaya Gram Jyoti Yojana.

Baig has also adopted a village in frontier Kupwara district for development. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked MPs to adopt a village in their parliamentary constituency.

Former MP from the constituency and senior NC leader Sharief-ud-Din Shariq, who lost to Baig, termed him a big failure.