news details |
|
|
| CM's statements on J&K costing NC very dearly | | Double-talk | | Neha
JAMMU, Nov 6: The ruling National Conference (NC) is in a difficult situation and losing people's confidence at an alarming speed. What has been adding to the difficulties of the NC is the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's double-talk. In Kashmir, he unsuccessfully tries to retrieve the political space lost to the PDP by speaking the language of separatists or taking recourse to soft-secessionism. The moment he makes any statement on Jammu & Kashmir and puts forth solution to the so-called Kashmir problem, the Kashmiri separatists up the ante and reject outrightly his formulations on Jammu & Kashmir. They also charge Omar Abdullah and the NC with bartering their "ideology" to remain in power. Take, for example, the response the Omar Abdullah's November 4 accession statement evoked from the separatist quarters in Kashmir. They create a situation which forces Omar Abdullah to turn more radical and make highly controversial statements. It is the trust-deficit between the CM and the common people in the Valley that negates all the attempts of the latter to woo them.
In Jammu, Omar Abdullah sometimes tries to placate the people by speaking a different language, as he did on Monday while talking to reporters. He tried to win over the people of Jammu province and Ladakh by saying that Jammu & Kashmir is a part of India and that he had never said that the accession was either conditional or incomplete. But in the process he not only offends his communal constituency in the Valley, but also offends the people of Jammu province by suggesting at the same time that "there may be difference about how the state acceded to India as compared to other states". Had he been really committed to his statement that Jammu & Kashmir was an integral part of India, he would not have talked about difference and by using the word difference he diluted the significance of his accession statement.
The NC has been paying a very heavy price by taking recourse to double-speak. It is losing hold over its constituency in Kashmir and it is further driving the people of Jammu province and Ladakh region away from the NC, which is already very unpopular in these two regions for obvious reasons, the most important being gross discrimination with them. He should take a clear stand on the state. Such an approach may help him win a few seats in the coming elections. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
