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| Congress an "undependable" ally | | Govt formation in J&K | |
Rustam
JAMMU, July 28: "The Congress is not a dependable ally. It also makes promises on the eve of and during the election campaign to garner votes, but does nothing to fulfill them. It throws its election manifesto into dustbin after the election and enters into an unholy alliance to grab political power. The Congress is the most opportunist party and it indulges in politics of opportunism in a most brazen manner". This is what most of the people in Jammu province believe. The belief is well-founded. During the past more than 66 years, the Congress did behave in a fashion that made the people form such an opinion about the Congress party.
It is hardly necessary to dig the entire history of the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir post-1947 to prove the point the people make about it. Even a cursory glance at what the Congress did in the state after the 2002 Assembly elections would be enough to draw the conclusion the people have already drawn. In 2002, the Congress won 20 seats, NC 28 and the newly-founded PDP 16. The Congress preferred an alliance with the PDP and not with the largest legislature party, the NC. AICC president Sonia Gandhi declared in New Delhi that she took the decision in the larger national interest. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed became the Chief Minister on November 2, 2002 and he held the office during the first three years as per the power-sharing formula. There were elements both in the PDP and the Congress as well as outside who wanted the Congress to allow Mufti to continue for full term, but the Congress high command didn't agree. Instead, the high command sent Ghulam Nabi Azad to the state to lead the Government. He couldn't complete his term because the PDP withdrew its support to the Congress-led coalition Government in June 2008 on the issue of Baltal land. The coalition collapsed just before the 2008 Assembly elections and both the parties contested the next Assembly elections separately. As for the Azad's Government, it fell on July 7. He lost the game because he, or for that matter the Congress high command, had kept the Panthers Party out of the coalition. The Panthers Party was part of the Mufti-led coalition Government. It had two Ministers in the Mufti Government.
In 2008, the Congress won 17 seats, NC 28 and the PDP 21. The PDP increased its tally by five seats. This time the Congress preferred the NC, notwithstanding the fact that the PDP had, it was believed, promised unconditional support to the Congress from outside. Sonia Gandhi rejected the offer and turned towards the NC. She entered into an alliance with the NC and offered the office of Chief Minister to Omar Abdullah, saying she did so in the larger national interest. Interestingly, the Congress-NC coalition has again collapsed for all practical purposes just before the 2014 Assembly elections. The Congress on July 20 left the NC in the lurch and decided to go to the Assembly polls alone. Not only this, the Congress leadership gave the people to understand that it would again be in power after the 2014 elections and its ally could be either the PDP or the NC. In other words, the Congress leadership left none in any doubt that it would enter into a power-sharing agreement with any of the two parties. Only the Congress party can indulge in such power games.
As for its election manifestos or promises, less said the better. It didn't fulfill the promises it made to the people of Jammu province in 2002 and it also left them high and dry after coming to power in alliance with the NC in January 2009. At the recent convention of the party workers in Jammu, many a participant admitted that the party didn't implement its agenda to keep the NC in good humour and said that the Congress lost because it had betrayed the people of the state in general and Jammu and Ladakh in particular.
Again, the Congress leadership has held out a promise that it would end discrimination with Jammu and Ladakh in case it comes back to power. It said so in Jammu as well as Ladakh. But gone are the days when the people of these two regions would walk into their trap and vote for the Congress party; they no longer trust this party. Paradoxically, even the people of Kashmir do not trust the Congress party, despite the fact that it always worked for the Valley ignoring its own constituency in Jammu and Ladakh. The Congress itself is responsible for this trust-deficit. |
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