Mr. Sadiq Ali

PDP's senior State Secretary, Sadiq Ali, described the announcement as a "dream come true for the people of Kashmir".
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I hope the day is not far away when both, India and Pakistan, will start living like two civilised nations with one obsession-improving the quality of the life of their millions", Sadiq added.He said that by making the announcement, the leaders of the two countries had opened a new chapter of the Indo-Pak history.

How naïve and self deceiving is to draw an imaginary link between the aspirations of people and the demands of politicians, Hilal Ahmad reacts to an article by Sadiq Ali published in Greater Kashmir
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Sadiq Ali, the member of Legislative Council, is known as an urbane, well-read politician with a penchant for frequently changing loyalties to political parties.He has been member of National Conference and Congress in the past.So it is no surprise to see him now as PDP's cheerleader warning New Delhi that it would be committing suicide if Congress takes over the reins of power. ("What do we need?"Greater Kashmir, October 23). To make his point, Sadiq Ali makes a cocktail of rhetoric, unfounded praise, and the most potent weapon of so-called mainstream political parties, that is, to warn India that it would lose Kashmir if they were not heard, meaning if they are allowed to continue in chair. Willy-nilly, Kashmiris now have a chief minister from Jammu, a man who has spent most of his political life serving New Delhi.His acquaintance with Kashmir is no more than military men who spent decades of their active service in Kashmir.In this backdrop, Sadiq Ali's article is an interesting pamphlet that unwittingly exposes the democracy in Kashmir that never could mature. "In the past all the Chief Ministers were accused of being central agents who spoke and understood only the Delhi language.The new incumbent was different.For the first time the people felt that we had a Chief Minister who had his own mind," Sadiq Ali writes.
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I wonder how Sadiq Ali came to the conclusion that "for the first time people felt that we had a chief minister who had his own mind."How do you perceive people's ‘feeling' when you need the support of nearly a million troops, hundreds of thousands of government employees, and a paid army of henchmen for the elections?Or is it that you want to say your Congress partners would be seen as Indian agents if they were allowed to rule?The complex political situation in Kashmir has automatically set-up a mechanism whereby any politician pandering to New Delhi's interests overtly (Bakshi, Sadiq, Dr Farooq Abdullah), covertly (like Mufti), or reluctantly (like Sheikh Abdullah), becomes a refuse.
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Sadiq Ali "doesn't find a single instance where PDP has deviated from the promises it made in its election manifesto."Political lies were not told so brazenly before.The chief minister and his ministers are more diplomatic than Sadiq Ali.
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Be it the opening of the Muzaffarabad Road, withdrawal of all the draconian laws, Indo-Pak relations, or "Peace with Dignity", anybody else in his place with barely 17 members would hesitate to tread a path that went against the declared national policy," Sadiq Ali emphatically writes. If only expression suffices, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah fought for Kashmir's right to self-determination for nearly two decades and people rallied behind him too.He was jailed too.Mufti was Delhi's man even then and when Kashmiris revloted en masse in the late eighties to demand freedom, Mufti was the home minister who dealt the first blow to that popular movement.As home minister he is on record saying in Bijbehara that " Kashmiris have smaller weapons while India has bigger weapons" or "tanks would respond to bullets."Isn't it surprising that while the Muzaffarabad road was symbolically opened up, not a single repressive law was repealed even though Mufti is giving an impression that everything is OK and pleads foreign nations to send their citizens as tourists?Sadiq Ali says Mufti has dared to express himself on issues "that went against the declared national policy."Isn't it shameful in the first place to endorse the policies, and implement them too, that call for enforcement of repressive laws?Isn't it a contradiction of sorts that chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayed, is lauded for expression even though he is the chairman of the largest internal security grid in the world, that is, the United Head Quarters, comprising army, paramilitary forces, police, intelligence agencies, that oversees every gunfight and counterinsurgency operation.Did his ‘expression' on the rape of a ten-year old girl in Handwara restored "peace with dignity" to lakhs of Kashmiris whose protest was crushed with force? Mufti is the first leader whose policies have been endorsed globally, Sadiq Ali says.National and International media has been favourable to the present dispensation, for reasons well known.A European Union delegation termed Kashmir a beautiful prison.It is another question that a manufactured reality can be passed off.There is nothing unique in such an endorsement.It has been accorded to a select group of journalists and renegade militant commanders who regularly frequent Brussels and Washington to push forward a particular point of view for which they get paid. One wonder when in Mufti's rule "our youth were convinced of the futility of gun."Surely they might have whispered it in the ears of Sadiq Ali.Otherwise, the largest number of Kashmiri militant commanders (particularly of Hizbul Mujahideen) wouldn't have been killed in Mufti's time than in comparable period of time before.That too, when "peace is around" and there is no let up in bloodshed. Early in his article he says that "with peace process was moving forward some semblance of normalcy was visible everywhere.
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Sadiq Ali's article brings into being the suppressed actualities of Kashmir situation that have been buried under a misperceived reality for the past 57 years.

Sadiq Ali, Rangil Singh desert NC, join PDP KT NEWS SERVICEJAMMU, Jan 7: One of senior front ranking leaders and former legislator of National Conference Sadiq Ali along with former minister Rangil Singh joined the ruling People's Democratic Party.PDP vice president Mehbooba Mufti welcomed Sadiq Ali and Rangil Singh into the party fold in a simple function held here this afternoon at party headquarters.Mehbooba described both the leaders as men of integrity and credibility. With this four National Conference leaders have reached the PDP camp after the recent assembly elections.Earlier, former Education Minister Agha Sayeed Mehmood and former Revenue Minister Choudhary Mohammad Hussain's son Choudhary Zulfikar Ali had joined the People's Democratic Party. Switching over of Sadiq Ali to People's Democratic Party is being seen as a message of major loss to the National Conference.Apart from holding important posts in the party Sadiq Ali is a scholar of national repute and an expert on international affairs. A prominent Shia leader of Srinagar and a close associate of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, Sadiq has been the treasurer of NC for last 22 years.He has been the longest serving member of the NC central working committee.Before joining the PDP he resigned from both posts of the previous party. Enlisting his reasons for deserting National Conference, Sadiq Ali said the party leadership had become too arrogant with power and equally insensitive to people's problems.He said, "I have lived with certain ideals and principles in public life but it was no more possible to continue the politics of ideology in National Conference." Sadiq pointed out that he always used to make endeavours to arouse the conscience of the NC colleagues and the warned the leadership of the dangers but "instead of taking cognizance of nepotism and wholesale corruption the vested interests were constantly and willfully allowed to flourish."He added that the NC has no honour for the men of integrity and the leaders could never digest him.He said, "I had exposed many scandals against some tainted ministers for whom political morality never had a meaning." On his decision over joining the PDP, Sadiq said, the party headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed reflects the hopes and aspirations of the people of state and it is the only party that is forward looking and can extricate the state from the dismal dump of insecurity, bad governance and economic despondency.He pointed out that honour which the PDP has for an honest and competent person is beyond the realm of imagination of the National Conference.He said "in Mufti Mohammad Sayeed the people of Jammu and Kashmir have a man who shares the people's agony and wants to give them a healing touch."Expressing his faith in the leadership of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and ideologies of the PDP, Ali said that he would strive for the welfare of the people of augmentation of the party. Sadiq Ali represented the Zadibal constituency of Srinagar district in the outgoing assembly.He lost the recent assembly election in his home constituency.It is alleged that some NC leaders had pitted an independent candidate of Shia sect in Zadibal to cut into the vote share of Sadiq to ensure his defeat.This "conspiracy" appears to have proved as last nail in the coffin compelling Sadiq Ali to leave the party. Rangil Singh who also joined the PDP was also with National Conference.He joined the NC in 1998 after deserting the Congress.He has remained a minister in 1987 after he won election on Congress ticket from R S Pura constituency. Rangil Singh had contested the 1996 assembly polls from Gandhi Nagar constituency on Congress ticket but he lost to Choudhary Piara Singh of BJP (now with National Conference).He is a prominent Sikh leader. Welcoming Rangil Singh and Sadiq Ali in PDP, party's senior leader and general secretary Ved Mahajan said, they are an asset for the party.

However, the NC president Omar Abdullah expressed his shock over only one deserter Sadiq Ali, a former legislator, who joined the PDP recently.
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One of the senior most NC leaders who joined the PDP, Sadiq Ali says, "the NC lost its roadmap somewhere and there was neither any serious issue nor any credible agenda that could reflect the challenges of new millenium."He admitted that his security was once downgraded but in view of the threat perception the security cover was restored long before he actually thought of joining PDP.He says, "I have been a target in nine bomb blasts but I had little security cover.I wrote to the authorities and my security was restored at a time when I had never thought of joining any of the political party." Agha Sayeed Mahmood who was a Minister of State in the outgoing government quit the National Conference before elections.

‘Pak involvement must for Kashmir resolution' : Sadiq Ali

Shabir justifies talking.

Hurriyet Conference and other outfits which claim popular support amid indications that a final solution is being shaped around the trifurcation of the Jammu & Kashmir state , a demand raised by Sangh Parivar outfits , while Farooq Abdullah prepares to turns the tables by calling new elections...Javed Matjee in Srinagar speaks to two key players in the Valley.J& ; K - protests against CRPF killing a youth at Baramulla on 23.03.01- Nisar Ahmad- Frontline

‘Pak involvement must for Kashmir resolution' : Sadiq AliMr. Sadiq Ali is a senior leader of the ruling National Conference ( NC ).He has been a minister in the cabinet of late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.