NC begins overhaul

Sagar replaces Sheikh Nazir as general secretary

SRINAGAR: Indicating total overhaul before the assembly elections, due this December, the ruling National Conference Monday appointed Ali Muhammad Sagar as the party’s General Secretary, replacing Sheik Nazir who had held the post for decades. Sagar, seen as Farooq Abdullah’s confidante, will be the first NC man outside the Abdullah clan to assume the crucial post .The party has cited Nazir’s health conditions for his replacement yet insiders say Farooq Abdullah has clearly told his son and chief minister Omar Abdullah that he plans to end the “technocracy.”

Ever since Farooq Abdullah was defeated in the landmark contest for parliament, the party has had  half a dozen introspection sessions to ascertain the cause of rout from even the strongholds. “This will not stop at General Secretary post. Nazir sahab was genuinely unwell and not able to run party affairs. But Farooq has started from his own flock. Now the axe is expected to fall on the younger lot,” a party insider told Kashmir Observer.

Source said Farooq also wants to do away with Devinder Singh Rana and Nasir Aslam Wani. Both are Omar’s longtime friends and many believe both have funded Omar’s election campaign in 2008 while Farooq remained aloof. “Farooq is keen to chose better hands to head Jammu and Kashmir provinces as provincial presidents,” a party cadre said.

The fate of Omar’s advisor Tanveer Sadiq and the handpicked spokesman Junaid Azim Matto, is still unclear. But the sources insist Farooq Abdullah has expressed his “anguish” over the “coterie culture” in the party. The party is also learned to have got invisibly split along the line of “young vs old”. But the frictions are not being allowed to crop up because both camps are worried about the party’s dwindling electoral fortunes.

Meanwhile additional general secretary Sheikh Mustafa Kamal Monday said

both youth and old-guard had to run the affairs of the party in tandem. “Youth are keen to work for the party while the senior leaders can advise and guide them to steer the boat of the party. The change that party is going to make will see mixture of both. Now Farooq Abdullah is available for the workers in Kashmir, the party will surely be able to make one-to-one contact with the people and party workers,” he said.  

Kamal said the party president was mulling to go for a major reshuffle in the party. “You see party appointed Ali Muhammad Sagar as its new general secretary but this is not the only change. In coming days, the party will witness a major reshuffle while new faces may be given preference over some of the leaders who occupied cabinet berth and other important posts for years together,” Kamal told Srinagar based news gathering agency CNS.

Kamal admitted that some of the party ministers cared a fig for the people who elected them in 2008 assembly elections.  “These people must change their attitude and must understand that people are the ultimate authority and it is because of these people that they occupy the chair,” he said.

NC legislator said that the party president Farooq Abdullah was keen to bridge the gap between traditional party workers and leaders. “Farooq Abdullah was busy in New Delhi and he had not information what was happening on the ground in Kashmir. Farooq Sahab himself admitted that due to his busy schedule in New Delhi, he found it difficult to spare enough time for the party. The defeat in Parliament elections opened the eyes of party leadership and now everyone has agreed to change his attitude towards the people,” he said adding that there was no doubt that party Ministers kept themselves detached with the common people and even did not bother to receive their phone-calls in time of need.

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