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| Omar's political pen drive, coalition Govt subservient to party interests of NC? | | 'Ministers at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhawan, Nawa-e-Subah complex' | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Feb 15: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah by a stroke of pen has seemingly made coalition Government, of which Congress is a part, subservient to the interests of National Conference, of which he is Party President.
Legislative Assembly members of National Conference (NC), who are Ministers in the ruling coalition, have been asked to follow wisely made roaster vis-a-vis their attendance at the party headquarters in Jammu and Srinagar respectively. Omar as President of the Party, issued a roaster unilaterally without even taking his coalition partner, Congress into the confidence.
It needs a special mention that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah never issued any such roaster till the time Jammu NC was headed by a little known Rattan Lal Gupta and Kashmir by Ali Mohammed Dar, who is now a member of the upper house of State legislature. No such roaster was issued for the Ministers of the ruling coalition during the last four years. But when two close buddies of Omar offered a so-called sacrifice, from MPs to MLAs to MLCs to Ministers, all were summoned to the two party headquarters.
They obeyed in entirety. And if the Afzal Guru hanging would not have intervened, Ministers including the senior most ones had begun following the roaster religiously. A group of workers had begun frequenting Sher-e-Kashmir Bhawan in Jammu and Nawa-e-Subah complex in Kashmir. Rush in Civil Secretariat had begun dwindling with workers preferring to visit party headquarters than the official chambers of the NC Ministers. Ex-Political Advisor Devinder Rana alongwith ex-Home Minister Nasir Aslam Wani have both begun reaping fruits of their so-called sacrifice for strengthening NC within days of their ouster from the two high profile offices in the Civil Secretariat.
If the seniors until yesterday had some reservation vis-a-vis the overnight rise of two little known figures in political spectrum of Jammu and Kashmir, they now have follow directions of these two close confidants of Abdullah family. They have to keep their official engagements at bay and instead of meeting people in the Civil Secretariat or at their residences or in the guest houses or at some other places of their choosing, they have to mandatorily call them to Sher-e-Kashmir Bhawan or Nawa-e-Subah complex.
The message is loud and clear. "Either you are with us or against. If you are with us, you have the luxury of getting your issues redressed from our high profile Ministers at the party headquarters and if you are not with us, you have to search for them, seek an appointment and then, you could talk to them about the problems you have been facing," the political observers opine. They see the move as unprecedented. "Nowhere in the country are seen people being called to party headquarters for meeting the Ministers. This is political blackmail aimed at forcing people especially workers to reach NC headquarters when they have a Constitutional right to meet the Minister at any place other then the headquarters of any political party," an observer said. He maintained that NC Ministers are violating the oath of office and secrecy which they took on the day when they were sworn in to look after the entire State.
Constitution does not allow a Minister to act in a biased and a prejudiced manner, said a Constitutional expert. He added that if the Chief Minister wanted a powerful position for two of his close friends, he could have given them party positions but kept them in the Civil Secretariat at the positions which they were holding earlier, thus preventing the virtual denigration of another important institution i.e. seat of governance.
However, Omar preferred the other way around. Whether or not, this tactic of Omar would work wonders remains to be seen but the action is likely to bring a serious downfall into the institution of governance. It is likely to pave way for other parties to follow suit and instead of visiting the Civil Secretariat as a matter of routine and as part of their duty, Ministers are likely to violate the Constitutional stipulation and prefer party headquarter over the office held by them. |
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