“No!” Samar asserted. “I always looked out for you. Even when you made Iram interim president, I only looked out for you. Do you know Sufiyaan wanted to kill you in jail?Istopped him.”
Silence slammed between them. Atharva sat down at the head of the table. Then glanced up at him — “Should I even waste my time asking how you stole the tapes?”
Samar hesitated.
“It was all leading to this,” he said instead. “I still don’t know why you didn’t release them sooner, considering all those lengths you went to… I’m guessing you were waiting for the right time and I did it at the perfect mome…”
“Stop acting like a fucking hero, Samar. You took your revenge on Aamir Haider, that is what you were after. Not for KDP, not for me, not for anybody else. You did this for yourself, and I hope that ends your revenge. For all our sakes, I hope it ends here.”
But it just doesn’t end.Samar screamed inside.I don’t feel avenged.
“You get to be the fucking hero, Atharva…” Samar thundered. “Everyone thinks you have released the tapes. Again, you become the hero!”
“And that’s on you and your half-baked plans.” Atharva retorted. “You are so hell-bent on getting your way that you don’t look left or right. You keep asking me why you never knew my strategies in SFF while Adil did? That’s because Adil knew his strengths and weaknesses, that’s because he covered my weaknesses and executed the plan to the T. Nothing more, nothing less. You, on the other hand, tracked your own changes. And more often than not, they were half-baked. Detrimental,” he stressed. “That’sthe truth.”
“You should thank me, then.” Samar sneered. “For all myhalf-bakedplans that fell into your lap, you should thank me.”
“Then thank you for leaking those photos of Iram and me.”
Samar froze.
“My biggest blessing in disguise. Biggest, Samar. So thank you. And for this, I will thank you tomorrow. Officially. Come prepared.”
“In that case, you come prepared for my MLAs to leavewithme.”
————————————————————
The Working Committee meeting was opened up to an extra few members of the party, including the secretaries and parts of the Media and PR team. Cabinet-selection meeting, it was called. Samar walked in, and found the seats already filled. Amaal sat there in the side with the rest of the members as the Working Committee round table was crackling with conversation. Their eyes met, and she mimed a call. He had not picked up or returned any of her calls yet.
Samar nodded, unable to stop himself from smiling back when she did.
Atharva stepped up to the head of the table, and Samar quickly went and sat down on the lone empty chair. His chair. On the right of Atharva.
“Good morning and welcome to the Cabinet-selection meeting. First, I would like to take this opportunity to formally congratulate each and every one of you present here. You, along with your teams and your processes, have made this incredible feat possible. A single cell cannot run an organ, a single organ cannot run a system, and a single system cannot run a body. If there was an example of this law of nature churning right in the working world, it would be Kashmir Development Party. So, a round of applause for you. For us.” Atharva put his hands together, making the room echo with applause.
“Without going into a longer speech because god knows I’ve done enough of those,” Atharva said, drawing chuckles. “Let’s get into the distribution.” He opened a padded file with the KDP logo embossed on it and began reading.
“I will hold onto finance. Minister for IT, technology, education, youth affairs & sports — Adil Hussain. Minister for industries and commerce, culture, labour, and employment — Meer Hasan Qureshi. Minister for roads and buildings — Imran Raza. Our speaker candidate will be Mr Anand Khatri. My Press Secretary will be Amaal Durrani.”
Samar blinked, staring at his hands. Where was Health, Housing and Urban Development?
“We will be offering Janta Party the Deputy Chief Minister and a few minor ministries. But they may not be satisfied with that. So we will keep the Ministry for Health, Housing and Urban Development as a bargaining chip.”
Samar’s eyes whirled to Atharva.
“Our pros of having Janta on our side far outweigh the cons,” he went on. “So, as a consensus of the core team, we will be doing everything in our power to keep this alliance.”
Core team? When the fuck was he consulted?! Samar kept a cap on his temper and began plotting his retort. Qureshi beat him to it, though.
“Atharva, do you think giving them Health and Housing is smart? We always agreed that Samar will become our Health Minister. As a doctor, he has far more knowledge and experience to restart the non-existent health ecosystem.”
“I do not disagree with that. But,” Atharva paused, “Samar is needed elsewhere.” He set his papers down and smiled. “Who would lead the party as the President when I step down this week?”
The room plunged into silence.
“Samar has worked this election campaign brilliantly,” Atharva pointed. “And having worked so closely with me, he knows what will go into keeping KDP strong and growing.”
Having considered the Summary of Evidence, medical board findings, and the officer’s conduct record post-repatriation, this General Court Martial concludes that the accused is suffering from service-attributable psychological impairment sustained during captivity as a Prisoner of War.
