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| NC believes in politics of convenience | | | Well if the PDP President,Mehbooba Mufti,has accused the National Conference of moving from one issue to the other for the sake of retaining or regaining power she is partly correct because there have been a number of political organizations in Jammu and Kashmir that say one thing in Kashmir, the other one in Jammu and yet a different thing in New Delhi.It is being done simply to keep their vote bank in Kashmir intact and ensure that the powers that be in New Delhi are kept in good humour. Mehbooba has blamed the National Conference for trading plebiscite movement for power.She has said that the politics of U-turns and sell-out by the NC has created a trust deficit between the state and the rest of the country.Mehbooba seems to have been enraged by Omar's recent pronouncement blaming people for following "dream merchants" and she has hit back telling Omar that his NC had ram the campaign for plebiscite for 22 years which was later sold for power in 1975. The way Omar compared PDP's slogans and commitments to dream merchants and Mehbooba's sharp barb while accusing the NC for stopping to any extent for the sake of power indicate that the two parties were getting ready for measuring their muscles during the pre-poll campaign for the next Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections.
Yes there is no doubt that the NC leadership launched a campaign in favour of holding a plebiscite for settling the Kashmir and this campaign went for 22 years. And if the NC leadership ultimately grabbed an offer from New Delhi for talks there is nothing surprising about it. Even while being in political wilderness between 1953 and 1974, Sheikh Abdullah continued to be the tallest political figure in the state and enjoyed a mass following. He had,during these 22 years,learnt that his plebiscite movement may prove unproductive and abound to fizzle out.Hence when feelers were sent to him for a meaningful dialogue in order to hammer out an accord he lost no time.It is within the ambit of good politics if political parties keep on changing their strategy and stand either for being in the opposition or for securing power. Those who do not agree with the belief that some politicians change their stand on issues to be in the opposition need to consider the role played by Syed Ali Shah Geelani.Geelani has been a member of the state Assembly for a number of years and then changed his stand and fuelled a separatist movement. During the last over 23 years he has been a vocal while calling upon people to boycott elections.Sajjad Lone,son of a seasoned politician, who remained in the mainstream political spectrum for years and was inducted in the cabinet on a number of occasions, joined the separatist camp before he was killed by militants, too was a member of the separatist camp opposing any poll process. However, since 2002 election he is said to have changed his stand on the issue and now he plans to jump into the poll fray.
The PDP patron,Mufti Mohd.Sayeed,has remained the PCC chief for a number of years. He has been instrumental in keeping the Congress flag flying in Jammu and Kashmir during the years Sheikh Abdullah was in power from 1975 . He later quit the party to join the Jan Morcha and later floated the PDP in 1999. Omar Abdullah has alleged that the PDP has been the brain child of the BJP which seems to be unacceptable to those who refer to the Mufti's alliance with the Congress for forming a Congress-PDP coalition Government in Jammu and Kashmir in 2002. But Mehbobba Mufti is right when she blames the NC for following the politics of U-turns. There have been a number of events and political developments that go to prove that the NC is on the top of the list of political parties that follow the politics of U-turns.There has been a love-hate relation between the NC and the Congress but the NC leadership has,from time to time,abhorred the Congress,loved it and shared power with it.For 22 years,between 1975 and 1974, Sheikh Abdullah's venom against the congress was no longer secret but the same Sheikh joined hands with the Congress that enabled him to regain power in 1975. Farooq Abdullah has remained a staunch critic of the Congress but he formed the Goivernment in alliance with the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir in 1987 and now for the last five years the NC has been sharing power with the Congress. As part of the UPA Government Farooq is a member of the Union cabinet headed by Manmohan Singh. And when the BJP led NDA Government had been installed in the Centre NC was part of it and Omar Abdullah was a member of the council of ministers headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee. NC believes that change is essence of life and power. It does not believe that stagnation promotes political fatality. |
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