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| Omar challenges Congress, sticks to his stand on accession/merger | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Nov 9: Who is playing the shots in J&K? Is it the National Conference that is heading the government or is it the Congress without whose support Omar Abdullah cannot retain control over the office of Chief Minister even for a moment? Is Omar Abdullah willfully upping the ante and creating an environment that ensures the political demise of the Congress party in Jammu province, which is its strong support-base and core constituency? Has Omar Abdullah crossed all the limits in his desperate bid to retain control over his communal constituency in Kashmir? Is Congress playing the role of "B-team" and willingly allowing Omar Abdullah to unsettle the settled issue of J&K? Is Omar Abdullah out to outrage the nationalist sensitivities of the people of Jammu and Ladakh whose watchwords are full integration into India and a dispensation independent of Kashmir? Is Omar Abdullah right when he asserts again and again that J&K has not merged with India and that the political future of the state has yet to be determined?
It is not difficult to answer these direct and straight questions. Even a naive can answer these questions in no time. The manner in which Omar Abdullah is making outrageous, controversial and unsettling statements, particularly since October 6, does establish that it is the National Conference that is playing the shots and systematically preparing the ground for the state's separation from India. The basis is religion, the basis that led to the communal partition of India in 1947. His assembly statement that J&K only acceded and not merged with India constituted not only an act of constitutional impropriety but it also constituted a deliberate onslaught on the very institution of the Indian State. What he said in the assembly in the first week of October and what he said in Jammu yesterday, when the secretariat reopened in the winter capital, was nothing but a direct challenge to the Congress party. Provocation on both the occasions was grave.
It was expected that the Congress party would take on the erring and irresponsible Chief Minister, counter his false and communally and politically motivated propaganda, sever all ties with the National Conference and come out of the government and set the record straight on the issue of accession. But it didn't come up to the expectation of the people. The Congress didn't challenge Omar Abdullah, whose uncalled for statement had angered and alarmed the people of Jammu province and elsewhere in the country.
However, to say all is not to suggest that the Congress didn't express its views at all on the issue of accession or on the demands put forth by the National Conference. Senior Congress leaders, including Senior JKPCC vice-president and former Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma, JKPCC vice-presidents Dharmpal Sharma and S Gurmukh Singh, MLC and JKPCC media in-charge Amrit Malhotra and JKPCC general Secretary S Amolak Singh, did express their views, which were similar to the ones as are being held by the BJP, the JKNPP and similar other Jammu-based smaller political groups and socio-religious organizations.
As a matter of fact, these Congress leaders met the two interlocutors Dileep Padgaonkar and Radha Kumar in Jammu and told them that the accession of the state to India was final and irrevocable, that the Congress party was vehemently opposed to the National Conference's demand for pre-1953 politico-constitutional position and that the Congress stood for a radical change in the J&K Constitution that federalizes the state's politico-constitutional framework and sets up adequately empowered three regional councils, one each for Jammu province, Kashmir region and the Cold-Desert Ladakh.
What these Congress leaders told the interlocutors got wide publicity. It was natural. Natural in the sense that they had aired views that ran counter to the Omar Abdullah's stand on accession/merger and greater autonomy. What they said was obviously the official line of the party. And, what they said should have reigned in Omar Abdullah. But it didn't happen. On the contrary, Omar Abdullah reiterated his stand on accession/merger in Jammu itself and at a time when the people of the province observed a complete shutdown against Omar Abdullah and his government. What emboldened Omar Abdullah to stick to his stand in Jammu was the failure of the Congress leadership to take on him publicly. Had they expressed their views publicly and organized public meetings in this regard, Omar Abdullah would not have dared to say in Jammu that he "sticks to what he said in Kashmir."
What Omar Abdullah said is an affront to the self-respect of these Congress leaders. It is a challenge. They must accept it and defeat the game plan of Omar Abdullah. They cannot afford to remain mum on the issues which the people of Jammu hold very dear. They have to go on the offensive in order to restore the ground their party has been losing to the parties like the BJP and the JKNPP at a very rapid pace. The only course left for them is to take the party high command into confidence and unleash a relentless campaign in Jammu to expose the Chief Minister and the kind of politics he has been indulging in to strengthen his communal constituency in the Kashmir Valley and helping the cause of Pakistan and its Kashmir-based spokespersons like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Mehbooba Mufti, Aiysa Andrabi and so on. |
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