Congress Buys Vote With an Apology

NEW DELHI: In order to get senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad elected to the Upper House of Parliament, Congress legislators in Jammu and Kashmir bowed down before Independent legislator from Langate, Engineer Rashid and accepted his terms for his support.

Congress legislators admitted that their government had committed a “mistake” in not allowing Afzal Guru to meet his family before his execution to meet a primary condition set down by Rashid.

Rashid, whose vote in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday lead to Azad’s victory, said that his stand has been vindicated.

“This is the same Congress, who in coalition with National Conference threw me out from state assembly, and rejected my resolution, but today my stand is vindicated as they accepted their mistake,” Rashid told The Citizen.

He added that he voted for Ghulam Nabi Azad to defeat “nefarious designs of the BJP-PDP”.

Five MLAs- G M Saroori, Vikar Rasool, Haji Rashid, Muhammad Amin Bhat and Gulzar Wani - in a desperate bid to see Azad sail through the crucial election for the Rajya Sabha issued a statement asking Rashid to vote for him.

The five legislators while admitting the “mistake” said that it was a mistake not to allow Afzal Guru’s family to meet him for one last time.

”The views of Rashid with respect to allowing a last meeting to the kith and kin of Afzal Guru are genuine and based on humanitarian values and the same was a mistake”, the statement issue by the Congress leaders said.

The statement added that the demand made by Rashid for return of Guru’s “mortal remains” is a humanitarian issue.

Meanwhile, while talking to The Citizen, Senior Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani said that Afzal Guru is just a “political stunt for politicians”

“They keep changing their stand, it was just to get the vote and a mere political stunt” Geelani told The Citizen.

Afzal Guru, the 2001 Parliament attack convict was secretly executed by the Congress led UPA Government on February 92013 without informing his family. his body was buried in the Tihar jail grounds in Delhi.His hanging led to widespread violent protests in Kashmir.