| If NC could share power with BJP, why can't PDP? | | Unwarranted criticism | | Rustam
JAMMU, Nov 18: National Conference (NC) working president and Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who is enjoying the loaves and fishes of office with the support of the Congress party since January 2009, has turned extremely unreasonable. He has turned so unreasonable, nay alarmed and nervous, that he has started questioning the very credibility and ideology of the People's Democratic Party (PDP). On Sunday, he went to the extent of charging the PDP with hobnobbing with the BJP and expressed the view that the PDP could join the NDA to enjoy political power. "Hidden meetings of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed with close associates of LK Advani and his close contact with Narendra Modi have come to the fore, exposing the PDP ideology.
One cannot deny that the PDP has been the creation of the BJP. It always conspires with the BJP as has become evident from various MLC elections," Omar said, and added that the "hidden link among the BJP, PDP and the Panthers Party was also exposed earlier when they forged an alliance during the MLC elections in the state".
Omar Abdullah, who on November 4 had said that the accession of Jammu & Kashmir with India was unconditional and final and that the state was an integral part of India, not only attacked the PDP but also described Kashmir as a political problem that needed a political solution. In fact, he virtually justified the gun culture and said that the people of Kashmir opted for guns only to have a political solution to the Kashmir problem". "The people of the state (read Kashmir Valley) opted for guns only to have a political solution to the Kashmir problem and not for roads, electricity, drinking water and any other development issues. The Kashmir problem is not the same as that in Naxalite-hit areas where people had been fighting for development, against economic backwardness and inequality issues.
Naxalites in Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and other states fight because they have been kept devoid of development, including basic amenities like education, electricity, safe drinking water and others, but Kashmir problem is different and needs a political solution, and gun also became a part of solution-seeking," he was quoted as saying. To be more exact, he shared the view of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who recommended the gun culture for getting the Kashmir issue resolved. Geelani had this statement after meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's advisor on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz in New Delhi.
Any way, the issue under scrutiny is not accession of the state. The issue under scrutiny is the NC working president's attack on the PDP. It is strange that a person who enjoyed power during the BJP-led NDA regime and whose party was part of the NDA has attacked the PDP for the simple reason that he has come to believe that there is the possibility of the PDP joining the NDA. The PDP is a political party.
It has the right to join or not to join the UPA or the NDA. If the NC could join the NDA for the sake of power, why can't the PDP join the BJP-led NDA? The BJP is a national organization, which is all set to replace the Congress-led UPA government in May 2014 and hence, it would be only desirable if the PDP makes common cause with the BJP-led NDA subject to the condition that there would be a common minimum programme acceptable to all the NDA allies. In fact, the PDP would do well to discard its controversial self-rule formulation or its other controversial planks in the best interest of the people of the state, the nation and the party itself. Such an action on its part would go a long way in further isolating the NC and expanding its constituency.
The PDP leadership is fully aware of the fact that the people of Jammu and Ladakh, besides sections of population in Kashmir, hate and despise the politics of autonomy as being indulged in by the NC. |
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