By News Agency of Kashmir,
Jammu: There seems to be no end of the tug of war between former Union Minister and Jammu Kashmir’s PCC chief Saifuddin Soz and former chief minister and union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad as the duo has now resorted to mud slugging. The latest came from Soz who has blamed Azad of resorting to blackmail and character assassination.
In a statement issued here today, the PCC Chief has accused the former chief minister and union finance minister of resorting to the extreme of indecency and has offered to apologize publicly if the allegations leveled against him were proved.
Referring to a latest statement of Azad in section of media, the PCC chief said, “A two-page document full of ire against my person is unbecoming of a senior leader”.
The statement gave impression that I was behind the stories published in some papers suggesting the role of the senior leader in destabilizing the Cong-NC alliance in Jammu and Kashmir, he said adding, “The insinuations directed against me are nothing but a pack of lies”.
“What the leader had spoken to groups of people during his long tours of the J&K State recently and the leaks of his speeches is now public knowledge. All the stories on that tour appeared in various news papers”, he added and said “As for the particular stories, against which he (Azad) directed his ire and extreme anger against me, the names of journalists had also appeared and the truth could easily be nailed if he had tried to do so”.
It is politically absurd and ethically obnoxious to indulge in character assassination and blackmail of the kind his statement reflected. “If he is prepared to nail the truth and proves my involvement, I will apologize publicly”, the statement said.
“There was absolutely no justification for the leader to lose his cool and go to the extreme of indecency, unnecessarily”, Soz said in his statement, adding “I believe in working transparently and in a cooperative manner with the cadres at all levels to strengthen the Party”.
As for the induction of seven Congress Party Ministers in the J&K Council of Ministers, it is the Party high Command that had approved the list, he clarified further.