news details |
|
|
| Pro-autonomy NC says it will expose 'divisive' forces | | Exercise in self-deception | |
Early TImes Report
JAMMU, Jan 30: Newly-appointed provincial president National Conference (NC), Devender Rana, in whom NC working president and J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah reposed confidence a few days back believing that he would improve the party's poll prospects in Jammu province, yesterday dismissed certain parties in the state as "aberrations on the political map of the state" and declared that the NC will "isolate and expose the divisive forces which are power hungry and are hoodwinking the people for their petty political gains". He did not name the parties. He simply asserted that these parties will "disappear from the same because they lack an ideological bond or political moorings" as "such parties are an out crop of hunger for power and they always play with the emotions and the feelings of the people, hoodwink them for their short term gains which destroy the basic character of the polity in the long run". He, in addition, urged the people of the state to "identity and isolate these fringe elements and defeat their machinations which have always proved counterproductive to the welfare of the people of the State". Rana hitherto served the Chief Minister as his political advisor enjoying the status of Minister of State.
Since Rana's area of activities is confined to Jammu province, which returns to the Assembly 37 members, it is obvious that he was targeting the BJP and the Panthers Party. There was nothing in what he said which could even remotely suggest that he was targeting the Congress and the PDP which, like the NC, are described as "mainstream secular organizations" by the "secular" media and "secular" commentators. He cannot describe the PDP as "divisive", "communal", and even "power-hungry" because there is no fundamental difference between the two parties as far as their ideology and approach towards Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan is concerned. The only problem between the two is that each one wants to control the Kashmir constituency. Similarly, he cannot target the Congress. For, the NC has been sharing power with the Congress in Jammu & Kashmir and it is a constituent of Congress-led UPA because it considers the Congress party "secular". The NC had severed relations with the BJP and Omar Abdullah had quit the Vajpayee ministry on the ground that the BJP was a "communal" outfit. Besides, it can also be said that he did not target Kashmiri separatists and extremists. The reason is that they are not the competitors. In fact, the NC is quite supportive of them and this is evident from the fact that they have been surviving and thriving because of the overt and covert support that is being extended to them by certain elements in the establishment controlled by the NC and its "secular" ally Congress.
His targets were undoubtedly the BJP and the Panthers Party which had won 14 seats in 2008. It is the BJP which, which according to "secular" NC, and even the Congress, raises "divisive" demands ranging from abrogation of Article 370 to full integration of the state with India through the application of the Indian Constitution in the state in its entirety (minus Article 370) to stringent action against subversives and extremists as well as against Pakistan, to mention only a few. It is this type of "divisive politics" (read politics of integration) that the NC doesn't like. The Panthers Party, if one goes by the NC standards, could also be dismissed as "divisive" because it, like the BJP, not only questions Article 370 but also from time to time demands "reorganization of the state" and urges New Delhi to "empower the Indian Parliament to legislate on behalf of Jammu & Kashmir like all other states and Union territories". The fact is that the NC considers the Panthers Party as its bitter critic because the latter repeatedly terms the former as "anti-national" and "a grave threat to national security".
It would be better if NC provincial president names the parties he considers "divisive" and communal". This would enable the people of Jammu province to "isolate these fringe elements". Not to name the parties which the NC considers "divisive" and "communal" and not to catalogue the reasons which have led the NC to conclude that certain parties in Jammu region are "divisive" and "communal" would be construed by the people as an exercise in self-deception and half-hearted attempt at enlarging the support-base of the NC in Jammu province, which virtually decimated it 2008 and which appears to be on a weak wicket even today for reasons too well-known. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
