'There was a conspiracy in making Azadsaab quit Congress'

'The BJP had a big threat from the Congress in J&K, therefore they were threatened by us.'

After quitting the Congress in August 2022, Ghulam Nabi Azad formed the Democratic Azad Party in his home state, Jammu and Kashmir.

Last weekend, Azad expelled 3 senior DAP leaders: Former J&K deputy chief minister Tara Chand, former minister Dr Manohar Lal Sharma and former legislator Balwan Singh.

The reason for the expulsion? The allegation that the trio were hobnobbing with the Congress party.

The three leaders say they were not given an opportunity to clarify their loyalty.

"I got the news of my expulsion from the media," Dr Manohar Lal Sharma tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com in an e-mail interview.

Why were you expelled from the Democratic Azad Party?

I too was surprised because I have always been a close aide of Ghulam Nabi Azadsaab since the time I became an MLA.

I feel hurt the way I was expelled from his party because my association with him is for more than two decades.

I got the news of my expulsion from the media. He did not inform me about my expulsion from the DAP. I didn't know what to tell the media because I myself had no answers for my expulsion.

I had resigned as an MLA when he was not being made chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Eventually, he became chief minister in 2005.

In the Congress party, I always stood by him though it did not give me any returns in terms of a good post.

I also stood by him when he became a kind of spokesperson for the G-23 which took on the leadership of the Congress party.

I was not convinced (by his decision to form the G-23) and told him that loyalty matters most in a political party. But then I too was more loyal to Azadsaab than the Congress at that point of time.

You mean, when he raised his voice against the Gandhi family, you told him not to do so?

I told him thrice that he should not raise a banner of revolt within the Congress party. We are loyal party soldiers and we must stand by the party in difficult times.

Were you not told why you were being expelled from the party?

Till date, I don't know the reason. I believe Azadsaab is surrounded by a wrong coterie around him. These coterie members are doing wrong things and he gets influenced by that.

I still consider him my elder brother and I will not cut family and social ties with him. In politics though, we will walk separate ways.

Were you issued a show cause notice?

No show cause notice was given to me.

Azadsaab has kept the name of the party as the Democratic Azad Party, but here there is no democracy in the party. There was not a single line given to me as a show cause notice.

They could have expelled us after taking our reply, but they did not bother to tell us why were we being expelled.

I am still perplexed.

This was a one sided affair and there is no way you can run a democratic party in this manner.

It is not fair. The rule of law says that the one who is punished gets an opportunity to present his facts and view point, but we were not given that opportunity.

We three were close associates of Ghulam Nabi Azad. Tara Chand is a big leader of J&K.

I have been twice MLA and have always fought against the BJP.

I joined Azadsaab even when there was no symbol for his party and no party office too in Jammu.

There is still no constitution of the party that is in the public domain. I still joined him because of my respect for him.

126 party members quit after three of you were sacked.

Azadsaab went to head the G23, raising a banner of revolt against the Congress party leadership, but still nobody in the Congress gave him any show cause notice. This is how a democratic party works.

In our case, we did not participate in any anti-party activity and still got expelled without any show cause notice.

In fact, we worked hard in the last four months to make Azadsaab's party popular across the state.

The party was getting attention from people as we were addressing people's problems on the ground.

We did not even promote our photos in our party programmes, but only Azadsaab's photos were displayed on the banners and posters of our party.

There was no self-promotion from our side. But the coterie on his side wove some other story to him.

Who are his coterie?

It is better that I do not take any names. It is the same coterie which convinced him to quit the Congress party.

There was a political conspiracy in making Azadsaab quit the Congress party.

The BJP had a big threat from the Congress party in J&K and therefore they were threatened by us.

We have exposed the lies of the BJP one by one in the state, making people of the state realise their sinister games in the assembly.

Does it mean Mr Azad quitting the Congress benefited the BJP most?

The country will see all this in the coming times. You just wait and watch.

Why did you not call Mr Azad?

Three days ago, I had spoken to him in detail about the ongoing party work on the ground.

Whatever work he had asked me to do, I did.

I followed his instructions as he ordered as party chief.

I tried to call him many times, but his mobile phone was switched off.

One of the allegations against you is that you were hobnobbing with the Congress and therefore you were expelled. Are you planning to return to the Congress?

I was not ready to quit the Congress then, but when Azadsaab quit the party, we felt that he would be left alone. Therefore, we all joined Azadsaab's party.

Now, I don't feel like going back to the Congress. I don't know what the other two who were sacked feel.

I am planning to be an independent politician now.

Is Mr Azad's party gaining ground in J&K?

I will not like to comment.

Post Article 370, what is the biggest issue in J&K?

It is employment for the youth of J&K.

Outsiders must not be employed in large numbers in the state.

In Haryana they have such laws where locals get 75 percent of jobs, but we do not have this kind of rule here.

Terror and militancy has increased post removal of Article 370.

Kashmiri Pandit villagers who did not leave the villages of Kashmir during the peak of militancy in the 1990s are leaving now because there is more threat to them.

But people across India are happy after the removal of Article 370. Isn't it?

People are very unhappy about the removal of Article 370 in J&K. Before scrapping of Article 370 every Indian law was applicable to J&K state.

The only two laws that were not applicable were employment and outsiders buying land. Now those two laws are also applicable.

Today, outsiders are getting jobs in J&K and locals are jobless.

In Haryana, they have 75 percent employment protection for locals, but here we do not have any such law post the removal of Article 370.

In Himachal Pradesh, they have Article 371 which prevents outsiders from buying land in their state. The same thing applies to the north eastern states. But here the locals are not benefitting anything from the removal of Article 370.

And no new industries have come to J&K post the removal of article 370.

It looked like Mr Azad would give an alternate development model. Has he failed?

We too thought that he will project some good developmental model for J&K after quitting the Congress.

We thought he will fight for our rights with the central government to do more good for J&K, but instead of fighting with the central government he started fighting with his own party men.

He will realise one day that he made a mistake by sacking all of us.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com