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| PDP ups the ante, holds NC equally responsible for Guru's hanging | | NehaIs the party over? | |
JAMMU, Feb 10 : Kashmir's premier religio-political organization, National Conference (NC), was never under such sharp attack from all sides as it has been since yesterday, when the Congress-led UPA Government finally mustered courage and implemented the judicial verdict on Mohammad Afzal Guru, Parliament attack convict. Guru was hanged and cremated yesterday within the premises of Tihar Jail, Delhi, in a top secret operation. All the Kashmir-based outfits, both separatist and mainstream, have not only condemned New Delhi for executing Guru, but also directed their attack against the NC, which is ruling the state in alliance with the Congress and sharing power with the Congress at the centre. The APHC (M), the APHC (G), the JKDFP and the JKLF, besides other outfits have held the NC equally responsible for the execution of Guru. "The local government is equally responsible for this tyranny by becoming a mute spectator and as such supporting this anti-Kashmiri despotic act," was the upshot of their whole attack on the NC.
That these extremist outfits will attack not only New Delhi but also the NC was not unexpected. These virtually discarded outfits wanted an issue to target both New Delhi and the NC and they got it. They will surely exploit the execution of Guru and try to expand their separatist/communal constituency in the Kashmir Valley. They have always survived and thrived on the blood and sweat of common Kashmiri Muslims. Their propaganda against India and the ruling NC would surely erode further the already rather fast dwindling support-base of the NC in the Kashmir Valley. It is hardly necessary to catalogue here the reasons responsible for the decline of the NC which dominated the Kashmir's political scene for decades before and after 1947, as everyone in the state is fully aware of all those reasons.
It will not only the extremist and separatist outfits which would erode further the NC's support-base in the Kashmir Valley, but the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, which yesterday also expressed its unhappiness/sadness over the hanging of Guru in a sophisticated manner, would also not spare the NC, its bitterest political rival in the Valley. In fact, the party chief and Leader of Opposition in the Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly Mehbooba Mufti has already countered the claim of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah that he and his party had no role to play in carrying out the execution of Guru and asserted that the state government that the NC leads cannot be "absolved" of its responsibility in taking this "crucial decision". "The NC is part of the UPA and it must share the responsibility for this decision," she was quoted as saying, adding "power-sharing can't be in isolation of sharing the fallout of decisions". In her measured response, she -- apart from lambasting the NC leadership and holding it equally responsible for the execution of Guru - appealed to the people of the Valley to maintain their cool and restrain while "expressing their feelings". Compare her reaction with the reaction of Omar Abdullah's uncle Mustafa Kamaal and see the difference between the two. She did reflect on the execution of Guru, but did not use the kind of language Kamaal used.
Mehbooba Mufti did make a valid point when she said that the NC and the state government cannot be absolved of their responsibility in taking this decision. Since the NC is part of the Congress-led UPA and since none other than NC president Farooq Abdullah is a Union Minister, they would be considered, and very rightly, as a party to the decision the Union Government took on Afzal Guru. Farooq Abdullah is a senior member of the Union Council of Ministers and President of the Union acts on the advice of the Council of Ministers (read Union Cabinet of which the NC president is a very important part). No one can deny these facts. Since these are hard facts, it is obvious that the PDP would make this an important election plank and hit the NC leadership as hard as possible. The PDP has its organizational machinery intact; it has at its back and call committed workers all across the Kashmir Valley who would leave no stone unturned to tarnish the image of the NC leadership and drive the people of Kashmir away from it. For, this is an emotional issue and everyone knows what kind of role emotive issues plays during election days. The PDP may express regret over the execution of Guru, but it will certainly prove a blessing in disguise for the main opposition party.
All in all, it can be said that the NC is in deep trouble. If things remain as they are for some more months, the NC would not be able to even retain control over the constituencies which had reposed faith in it in the 2008 assembly elections. In 2002 and 2008, the NC had one an equal number of seats - 28 in the 87-member House. In 1996, it had won 68. Only a miracle can help the NC avert the impeding disaster. |
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