news details |
|
|
| J&K Congress a divided house | | Hindu Chief Minister | | Rustam
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Nov 13: The process to elect new assembly in Jammu & Kashmir is on. Candidates desirous of making it to the assembly are filing nomination papers. Political parties have also unleashed campaign to win over the electorate. The weak NC and the upbeat PDP and the BJP are putting in all efforts to woo voters. Ironically, the Congress, which, like the NC, has also lost the people's confidence, has not been able to speak in one language. Its leaders are speaking differently on such important issues as the office of Chief Minister.
Here in Jammu, the Congress has a leader in the person of Sham Lal Sharma who has been urging the electorate to vote in a manner that ensures elevation of a Hindu to the office of Chief Minister. Sharma has also been highlighting the importance of consolidating the Dogra identity and regional council for Jammu. The fact of the matter is that he is denouncing the existing political set-up in the state, saying that it is Kashmir-centric and that a regional council is needed to end discrimination with Jammu.
On the contrary, his party chief, Saif-ud-Din Soz, who hails from Kashmir and belongs to the ruling sect, is highlighting the importance of Kashmir and Kashmiri Muslims in the state's polity completely overlooking the fact that he is president of the state unit of the Congress party. His whole stance is alienating the people of Jammu province, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs included, as well as people of Ladakh from the Congress party. On Wednesday, Soz even crossed the red line and virtually sealed the fate of his party in Jammu province and Ladakh region. The case in point is the unqualified support that he extended to the suggestion that Chief Minister of the state has to be a Kashmiri Muslims. It bears recalling that PDP leader and Shangus MLA Peer Mansoor Ahmad had on Tuesday said that only Muslims had the right to rule the state. "J&K is a Muslim-dominated state. Some parties (read the BJP and the People's Conference) are trying to plant a Hindu Chief Minister in Kashmir by forging some unholy alliances," he had said while addressing a convention of party workers in Anantnag. His communal suggestion had evoked a very sharp reaction from sections of national media and parties like the BJP. But Soz, instead of rejecting the suggestion that only a Kashmiri Muslim could rule the state, endorsed it. The tradition must continue, he told reporters in Srinagar. "J&K is the only Muslim-majority state. The tradition must continue," he said while defending Peer Mansoor.
Significantly, the PDP on Wednesday distanced itself from the statement of Peer Mansoor and said that what he said was not the party line and it would be for the elected members of the assembly to choose new Chief Minister of the state. It was Sameer Kaul, party's spokesperson, who rejected the statement of Peer Mansoor. There is still time for the Congress leadership to sit up and decide what I should speak to enlist the people's support in the assembly elections. By speaking differently, the Congress leadership is only further spoiling whatever little electoral chances it has. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
