'Mehboob can do anything but never expected it from Imran'

 
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
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SRINAGAR, July 21: During Tuesday's press conference at headquarters of Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA), National Conference supremo and former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah turned a little emotional while mentioning that the Mufti Sayeed government's coup to dislodge him from the post of the President had at its forefront Minister of Sports Imran Raza Ansari.
 
"Mehboob (bureaucrat Mehboob Iqbal who has joined PDP after his retirement and has been elected as Chairman of JKCA in place of senior Congress leader Arvinder Singh Micky on Monday) can do anything but I had never expected it from Imran. I feel sad that Imran is part of this game. We have had deep family relationships. I made his father Minister even when he was in Congress", Dr Abdullah said about the young cleric-politician who for years was like a son to the former Chief Minister and whose father late Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari was known for his proximity to Dr Abdullah. 

According to reports as lately as on the day of Eid on last Saturday, two of the PDP's Cabinet Ministers called on Dr Abdullah’s son and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah with their greetings. One of them was Imran Ansari. 

Imran's father Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari had shot into political prominence when he gave a tough fight to Dr Abdullah’s mother Begam Akbar Jahan who nonetheless defeated the Shia leader from Srinagar with a sizable margin in Lok Sabha elections of 1977. Later, Ansari joined Congress and contested Assembly elections against NC in 1977 when he lost to Abdul Rashid Shaheen and also in 1983 when he won and defeated Shaheen---both times from Pattan. In 1984, Ansari as head of Congress Legislature Party and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as President of Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee played key role in dislodging Dr Abdullah as Chief Minister, engineering defection in NC and installing GM Shah as the new CM. 

However, when Congress under Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi's leadership formed a coalition with NC in 1987, Ansari emerged as Chief Minister Dr Abdullah’s bosom friend. Congress with Dr Abdullah’s favour inducted him as a Cabinet Minister in 1989. Thereafter, Ansari's intimate relationship with Dr Abdullah dominated Kashmir's mainstream politics. 

In 1996, NC helped Ansari win on Congress ticket from Pattan. He defeated Janata Dal candidate Abdul Rashid Shaheen. Notwithstanding stiff resistance from within his NC which had got two-third majority of its own, Dr Abdullah inducted Ansari into his Cabinet as Minister of Housing and Urban Development. He was once removed for his alleged involvement in so-called Sidhra land scam which was not established in Justice retired KK Gupta's commission of inquiry. However, allegedly under influence of Chief Secretary Ashok Jaitly and CM's Principal Secretary BR Singh, then DGP rank IPS officer and Vigilance Commissioner RV Raju indicted Ansari. It didn’t affect relationship between Ansari and Dr Abdullah. 

However, relationship between the two political heavyweights turned sour between when Ansari was allegedly humiliated by some NC leaders and bureaucrats and CM ignored it. Finally, Ansari resigned from NC in 2005. Later that year he joined PDP. Even after that, the duo had been occasionally visiting each other till Ansari passed away in 2014. 

Ansari's sons used to call Dr Abdullah as their 'Uncle'.


FAROOQ REMOVED IMRAN’S NAME FROM FIR APPLICATION 

Informed sources revealed to STATE TIMES that even while drafting an application to SHO Ram Munshi Bagh seeking registration of FIR for "trespassing" against some JKCA men, Dr Abdullah removed Minister Imran Ansari's name. When his colleagues asked for reason, he told them that Imran was "just a boy, who is being used by some other people". The application mentions only the names of Iqbal Shah, Abdul Rauf, Mohammad Iqbal, Javed Ahmad Kitab, Ashraf Bhat and Manzoor Ahmad Wazir.

END