New Delhi, May 28: A rude joke began circulating shortly after the swearing-in this afternoon — non-conventional energy, or new and renewable energy, for Dr Farooq Abdullah.
What a fitting charge for the man for all seasons from Kashmir — where would you get such an energetic, non-conventional man as him?
“Hah!” a top People’s Democratic Party adversary cackled over the phone from Srinagar. “What a left-handed gift to him! But is that true? Farooq had done enough non-conventional things so he has probably been picked for the right job.”
The sarcasm of tone was too loaded to miss, but too true to deny. At 48, in 1984, Farooq lost his government in Kashmir in the most unique circumstances — brother-in-law (the late) Gul Shah was pulling the rug from under him with Arun Nehru’s assistance in Srinagar while he was biking down from Gulmarg, a Bollywood actress on his pillion.
At 73 today, he doesn’t require too much persuasion to hit the nearest discotheque.
It’s doubtful, though, whether there’s too much dance and song in the Abdullah household tonight over the task the Prime Minister has handed him. Farooq had publicly pitched for health — which, to add injury to insult, has gone to fellow Kashmiri Ghulam Nabi Azad — saying he could bring his education in medicine to matter at a national level.
He was rumoured to be headed for culture and tourism, a stage he may actually have revelled on for the opportunities it offers Kashmir and to him personally; it has gone to a relative rookie, cabinet entrant Kumari Selja.
Most would reckon that in today’s world, energy — non-conventional, renewable energy — is a big-ticket issue, a serious brief central to political debate in capitals such as Washington, Brussels, Beijing, Tokyo and London. Kashmir itself suffers a serious energy crisis winter after long winter.
But therein may lie part of the problem — a serious brief may not suit Farooq’s style and temperament; it may leave him cramped, with too much reading and paperwork.
But should he defy his image and get down to that, there’ll be another occasion to raise three loud cheers for the man of forever-renewable energy.
