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| Revamping of Ministry unlikely to help NC improve its image | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Jan 16: The NC-Congress coalition finally revamped and expanded its Ministry. The NC dropped seven Ministers and inducted an equal number of new faces, five from Kashmir and two from Jammu. Six belonged to the majority community and one minority community. As expected, the NC again ignored the Sikh community and the miniscule minority of Kashmiri Hindus. It also did not think it proper to give more representation to women in the Ministry. The Congress dropped one Minister and inducted three new faces, one from Kashmir and two from Jammu, all belonging to a particular community. The NC kept most of the vital portfolios with considerable political weight and funds with itself. Besides, it changed the portfolios of those Ministers who were retained.
Reports suggest that the NC undertook the exercise to improve the image of the Government that it has been leading since the first week of January 2009 as well as the party, which has over the period lost much of its political space to various political parties, including its arch-rival PDP, and has been struggling hard to regain the lost political space. It not only dropped seven Ministers, but also made many changes in the party by assigning various kinds of duties to some of the dropped Ministers and political advisors hoping they would be able to mobilize public opinion in favour of the party and help it improve its tally in the 2014 Assembly elections. At present, it has only 28 MLAs in the 87-member Assembly, as against its tally of 68 members in 1996.
The exercise undertaken by the NC is unlikely to help it improve its position. For, it is the nature of governance, leadership and policies which matter. The people are concerned with the nature of Government the ruling elite hands down and not with who holds a particular portfolio and for how long. The experience of the past four years shows that those who controlled the State Government or managed the State affairs had utterly failed the people and only undermined the various crucial institutions and that they simply promoted their own interests. The same leadership would be at the helm during the next two years. It devoted most of its time and energy to non-issues during the past four years and there are reasons to believe that it would do the same during the remaining period of two years.
In fact, the leadership, instead of focusing its attention on matters of governance, indulged in politics of emotional blackmail and again and again demanded repeal of AFSPA and withdrawal of Army from certain parts of the State; again and again questioned the accession of the State with India; again and again attacked New Delhi and the Congress; and again and again missed the available opportunities which came its way to improve the socio-economic and political life of the people. It is reasonable to believe that it would conduct itself as before, thus leaving the people and the State in the lurch, with corrupt elements looting and fleecing the people.
As for the Congress, less said the better. It was faction-ridden and insensitive to the issues of public import in the past and it, it appears, will continue to behave like before. It has no people-specific agenda. Nor has it the required political will to oppose the NC and its controversial and divisive policies. Its only duty is to obey the diktats of the NC. Yes, there are many genuine Congressmen, but their problem is that their leadership is least interested in them. The fact of the matter is that the Congress, like the NC, has lost much of its relevance and that the people by and large have lost their faith in these and similar other formations.
The NC can improve its image provided it is willing to shun its "divisive and communal" ideology and work day and night for providing good governance to the people. Similarly, the Congress can also win over the people's confidence and the condition is the same: It has not only to prove its secular credentials by snapping ties with communal forces but also to make the NC provide good governance. But the question is: Will the NC and the Congress deviate from their respective paths they treaded in the past? One has to wait for getting the right answer. |
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