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| PDP power hungry, what about NC? | | Against Democracy | | Neha
JAMMU, Nov 25: People's Democratic Party (PDP) is not a social organization. It is a political party founded a decade ago with a view to neutralizing the influence of the National Conference (NC) and the Congress in the state in general and Kashmir valley in particular and create a political environment which could induce people to join it and help it capture political power. The aim of each and every political party is to capture power and implement its agenda. One can surely question the ideology and programme of the PDP, but no one has the right to question its right to play the role it is required to play as the main opposition party in the state. It is the second largest party in the Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly after the NC and has only seven MLAs less as compared to the NC. It has 21 MLAs, as against the NC's tally of 28 in the 87-member House. It is its fundamental duty to expose the acts of omission and commission committed by the ruling coalition, expose its misdeeds and highlight the problems and needs of the people. It would be regarded as a sinner in case it fails to discharge its obligations towards the people as the main opposition party in the state.
But more than that, India is a democratic country where every political party struggles to dislodge the one in power and take over the government for the stipulated period. The PDP is not committing any mistake by pointing out the weaknesses and failures of the ruling coalition and creating for itself a constituency needed for dislodging the NC-led coalition government. It is conducting itself in the manner provided for in our democratic set-up, leave aside its controversial self-rule doctrine which is almost a replica of the NC autonomy formulation.
It is intriguing that NC working president and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has not been appreciating the role the PDP has been playing as the main opposition in the state. Even far more ridiculous is his insinuation that the "PDP is power hungry" and that "it can go to any extent to grab power". Accepted for the sake of argument that the PDP is power hungry, but what about the NC? It is the NC which has been compromising its ideology and stated position from time to time for the sake of loaves and fishes of office. The very fact that it has been sharing power with the Congress is a proof that the NC leadership can go to any extent to capture power and retain control over it. Remember, the governments of Sheikh Abdullah in 1953 and 1977 and Farooq Abdullah in 1980s had collapsed because the Congress leadership of the time at the centre had dismissed with contempt the NC leaders as a threat to national security. Not only this, Sheikh Abdullah had to spend 22 years in jail because the Congress considered him anti-Indian.
Even today, the relations between the NC leaders, including Omar Abdullah and his uncle and critic Mustafa Kamaal and the local Congress leaders, including JKPCC president Saif-ud-Din Soz, are far from normal. It would be only proper to say that these NC leaders are not even on talking terms with Congress leaders like Soz. The fact of the matter is that Omar Abdullah is leading a ragtag coalition government or government consisting of disparate outfits. It would be better if Omar Abdullah and others of his ilk in his extremist and patently Kashmir-centric outfits look back and find what the NC has done in the past and what it has been doing particularly since July 2008 to remain in power. Indeed, the history of the NC is the history of compromises, flip flops and U-turns. The truth, in short, is that the NC leadership doesn't believe in democracy; for it democracy means perpetuation of its rule or misrule, whatever one may call it. |
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