news details |
|
|
| Wedge dividing NC, Congress gets deep and wide | | | Bashir Assad
SRINAGAR, Nov 1: Parting ways of ruling National Conference and Congress in the state is just a matter of time now as the coalition partners are apparently drifting apart with leaders from both sides engaged in a political diatribe against each other.
Though NC leaders particularly Sheikh Nazir Ahmad, the ailing General Secretary of the party and his cousin, the additional general secretary, Dr. Mustafa Kamaal have been frequently attacking Congress party holding it responsible for "betraying" the party's founder, the late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, "and thereby causing immense damage to the people of Kashmir", the Congress leaders of late too have started hitting hard at NC for its failure in providing a responsive and corruption free government to the people.
However, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's recent statement on resolving the Kashmir issue on Ireland pattern has further drifted the two parties away from each other with Omar consciously issuing such statements to appease his constituency back home but Congress has equally political compulsions to disapprove what Omar or for that matter his party men state.
However, the rift between NC and Congress is likely to reach to its climax in the coming days as both the parties holding diametrically opposite views on a host of issues may take extreme positions for electoral gains. It is in this backdrop that Sheikh Nazir and Kamaal have revived the old tested method of Delhi bashing. The duo have again started distorting the history by stating that late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was neither party to the 1947 instrument of accession nor was he signatory to the 1975 Baig-Parthasarthy accord.
"The accession was made by the Dogra maharaja, Hari Singh, when Sheikh Sahib was in the maharaja's jail. How could he be held a party to J&K's accession to India in 1947?" Nazir had said in a recent statement.
Nazir was quickly rebutted by the State Congress president Professor Saif-ud-Din Soz who said the statement was not based on historical facts as the maharaja's prime minister, Mehar Chand Mahajan, had approached the late Sheikh in October 1947 asking him to bring around Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, both of whom were of the opinion that unless the maharaja's request for accession was backed by the popular mandate of the Sheikh, India would not be able to ask the army to drive away the tribal invaders from Pakistan.
With the 2014 Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held before the state assembly elections, the drift between the NC and the Congress would make things really difficult for the latter in trying to work out some sort of an alliance with the NC for the general elections. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
