JAMMU: Despite glaring similarities between Mir Jafar and Apni Party’s dubious leader from the Kashmir Valley, the former enjoys a certain degree of respectability for having at least ‘some sort of loyalty’ towards British masters though being a traitor to the Nawab of Bengal Siraj-al-Daulah.
According to Britannica, an Arab by birth, Mir Jafar assisted his brother-in-law, Gen. Ali Vardi Khan, in seizing the government of Bengal in 1740. Discontented, he conspired with others in 1756 to depose Siraj al-Dawlah, the grandson and successor of Ali Vardi. In 1757 he assured Robert Clive, British governor of Madras (now Chennai), that he would enter into an alliance with the British to exclude the French from Bengal and pay £500,000 to the East India Company and £250,000 to the European inhabitants of Calcutta (now Kolkata) to compensate them for the loss of the city to Sir?j the previous year, provided that the British support his bid to be ruler of Bengal. He also promised large gratuities to British military and naval forces and to the Calcutta city council members. He and his fellow conspirators took no active role in the Battle of Plassey (June 1757), in which Siraj was overthrown, but he was installed afterward as the Nawab (Muslim ruler) of Bengal.
Mir Jafar has become a symbol of traitors and is being referred to whenever Indian politics witnesses ‘Aya Ram Gaya Ram’ syndrome with turn coat leaders changing loyalties in lieu of favours and concessions.
However, the political maneuvers of the Valley based leader of the Apni Party have reduced Mir Jafar as a dwarf traitor when it comes to ditching and ducking masters. According to Indian Express, ‘Apni Party’s Mir Jafar’ (reference is ours) nicknamed “manager” in political and security circles, is known for his political maneuvering and organising support or opposition at critical times. He was instrumental in organising counter-protests whenever the government needed to confront separatists. He also enjoys strong influence in security agencies. In September 2010,when an all-party delegation that included the then Home Minister P Chidambaram and BJP leader Arun Jaitley decided to move out to meet people, they headed to Tangmarg where the ‘Kashmiri Mir Jafar’ had arranged for villagers to interact with them. He was born in Hari Watnu village in Tangmarg and his father owned a small shop. When he was a teacher at a high school, he took unpaid leave to study law at Aligarh Muslim University. He returned in 1974, quit his teaching job and joined the National Conference. He won his first assembly election in 1982 from Tangmarg. In 1984, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi helped split the ruling NC to topple the Farooq Abdullah government, he was among the 13 MLAs who formed the new government with Congress support. But he went below the radar and did not engage in politics after terrorism erupted in the valley. At the peak of terrorism, he stayed at home without security, which sources say was because he had cordial relations with the terrorists in the area. He fought the 1996 election as an independent and lost to NC’s Mustafa Kamal. Although out of the Assembly, he kept himself relevant and is said to have helped the surrender of the top leadership of one of Kashmir’s large terrorist groups. In 1999, when Mufti Mohammad Sayeed formed the Peoples Democratic Party, he was a founding member. He won the 2002 Assembly election and was made Urban Development and Tourism Minister in the Mufti government. However, he went on to develop serious differences with Mufti and was dropped from the ministry in 2005 when Ghulam Nabi Azad took over as CM. He left the party soon after. In 2008, he formed his own party, the J&K Democratic Party Nationalist and fielded candidates in more than a dozen constituencies. Although all of them lost, he won from Tangmarg and became a minister in Omar Abdullah Cabinet from the Congress quota.
Kashmir’s Mir Jafar pales the real Mir Jafar in every treachery. He has been so smart to be close to terrorists and at the same time indispensable for agencies. He became instrumental in overthrowing Farooq Abdullah in 1984 and contributed in forming PDP with Delhi’s blessings.
He ditched political maverick Mufti Sayeed and managed entry into Omar Abdullah’s government from the quota earmarked for the Congress. Now he is waiting in wings to be indispensable for the new political dispensation as and when elections are held, even if it means slaughtering Apni Party.