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| 'B-teams' in Jammu & Kashmir | | NC, JKNPP | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Dec 30: On Saturday, Political Advisor to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Devender Singh Rana contemptuously dismissed Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) as "B-team" of the People's Democratic Party (PDP). It was obvious that he based his formulation on the very cordial relations between the JKNPP leaders like MLA from Ramnagar and former Education Minister Harsh Dev Singh and PDP leaders like Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti. There is no doubt that the relations between the JKNPP leadership and the PDP leadership have all along been very cordial and that neither the JKNPP nor the PDP has ever spoken against each other even after June 28, 2008, when the PDP withdrew support to the Ghulam Nabi Azad-led "unpopular" government on the ground that the government had allotted a piece of land at Baltal to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board for creating some additional facilities for the Amarnath pilgrims. In fact, both the parties supported each other in April 2011 when they contested elections to the Legislative Council. Besides, it is also true that the JKNPP would always love to share power with the PDP, and even with the Congress. Remember, the JKNPP has been consistently opposing the Congress for supporting but it calls "anti-national" NC.
One may or may not entirely agree with the Political Advisor, but one just cannot ignore the fact that the Congress and the National Conference (NC) to which he belongs are also no more than "B-teams" of each other. In Jammu & Kashmir the Congress plays the role of "B-team" of the NC. It is the NC which sets the agenda and makes policy announcements and the role of the Congress all along has been to toe the NC line, notwithstanding its reservations here and there on certain issues. In fact, both the JKNPP and the BJP have all through dubbed the Congress as the "B-team" of the ruling NC.
In New Delhi it is the NC which plays second-fiddle to the Congress which has been leading the UPA Government. The NC has been giving unstinted and unqualified support to the UPA Government despite the fact that New Delhi has always refused to accept its demands seeking withdrawal of the AFSPA and Army from certain areas of the state and so on. The NC did not quit the state government even after the Union Government censured Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in writing saying "he is responsible for "trust deficit and governance deficit" in the state. The Union Government had censured the Omar Abdullah government for its failure to control the situation in 2010. The truth is that the Congress is behaving in Jammu & Kashmir like the NC is behaving in New Delhi for the sake of power.
As for the BJP, the JKNPP terms it as the "B-team" of the NC and to support its point it refers to the support of BJP MLAs to the NC candidates seeking election to the Legislative Council and Rajya Sabha in 2010 and their support for the NC and the Congress candidates in April 2011 Legislative Council elections. The JKNPP, in addition, from time to time accuses some BJP lawmakers of flirting with some top-ranking NC leaders as well as some ministers, including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Union Minister for Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah.
The only party in the state which could not be termed as "B-team" of any political party is the PDP. The fact is that leaders of political parties, barring perhaps the PDP, are playing politics of opportunism taking into consideration their immediate political and personal interests.
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