Kashmir closely watching Rajasthan crisis

Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 14

Kashmir is watching very closely Rajasthan politics in which Sachin Pilot is in the centre of the political theatre being played out in the state, especially as the man in the centre of controversy is related to the first political family of the Valley — the Abdullahs.

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah’s daughter Sara is married to Sachin. The future step of the son-in-law in Rajasthan after his removal as Deputy Chief Minister and PCC chief of Rajasthan is being widely speculated. If he splits the party in Rajasthan, that would be seen as something good for Sachin. Kashmiris are very quick in making judgments, and in case of his staying in the Congress and splitting it would project him as a man who never compromises on secular values, like his father Rajesh Pilot, one of the most prominent leaders in Congress in late 1980s and early 1990s.

But, if he would respond to the appeals of the BJP leaders to join the saffron party, then his personality would dent his image. His father was quite popular in sections of Kashmiris for whom he had always pleaded a soft approach.

Although Abdullahs — Farooq and Omar — have not uttered a word about the political ups and downs within the Rajasthan government but they are understood to be watching the things with interest and studying its fallout, sources told The Tribune.

Farooq Abdullah and Rajesh Pilot were very close friends.

Pilot had played a significant role in building political bridges between Rajiv Gandhi and Farooq Abdullah after the latter was out of power following dismissal of his government in 1984 by then Governor Jagmohan on the directions of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Pilot and Farooq had brought about what later came to be known as Rajiv-Farooq Accord of November 1986 more as a symbol of the unity of the two leaders and their respective parties, as there was nothing in writing about this pact that shaped the history of Kashmir in early 1990s.

In Kashmir, nothing goes unquestioned. The relations are drawn between the political developments, especially when the two families are knit so closely.