JAMMU: With noises about early elections in Jammu and Kashmir becoming shriller, the chasm between the state Governor, General KV. Krishna Rao (retd), and the state Congress leaders has widened.
The state Congress president, Ghulam Rasoo! Kar, who has no love lost with the state governor, has been further annoyed by his utterances and actions. It is a known fact that the state Governor has a soft corner for Dr. Farooq Abdullahi and his party National Conference, but does not like Kar at all. ‘The retired Army general has made known his dislike for Kar at a number of occasions, despite the fact that Kar was the only political leader who visited the Kashmir valley during the last five years and of late, organized a number of public meetings.
But it was not G.R. Kar who had become a victim of the Governor’s wrath, the frequent visits of a number of central ministers to the stat also came in for sharp criticism by the Governor.
Addressing the district development board meeting at Udham Pur in August, the state Governor termed the frequent visits by central ministers as ‘useless’. However, he added that the Union Minister of Industries, K. Karunakaran, was a friend.
The differences between the state Governor and the former Union Minister of State for Internal Security, Rajesh Pilot, when he was dealing with Kashmir, were well-known.
Eyen the Union Home Ministry of facials had become victim of the state governor ‘sire following leak of some classified documents to the Press on the Charar-E-Sharief issue, However, the most hated person by the Governor seems to be G.R. Kar, who also not let go any opportunity to demand the ouster of the retired general.
The Governor who is friendly with the dissident’s camp in the Congress has criticized Kar on a number of occasions.
At a recent function, the Governor had a dig at Kar for organizing meeting by collecting odd Gujjars and claiming to start the political process.
But much to the annoyance of the Governor, Kar did hold public meetings at Chandoosa, Bandipura, Un, RatsanServa and Hall (Pulwama) which any other political leader has not yet dared to do. However, the aides of Kar alleged that despite tall pronouncements, the state authorities on the direction of state Governor are not cooperating in holding public meetings. Taj Mobiuddin, general secretary of the pradesh Congress committee and a close aide of Kar, alleged that despite telling the officials about the venue and time of the rallies, the venue of the rallies were not sanitized.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 27, 1995
