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| Congress, NC remain engaged in shadowboxing during 2013 | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 28: The year 2013, is just to end and the focus, during the year, remained on the survival of the Congress-NC alliance. Each month saw a new dimension to the tussle between the Congress and the National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir prompting people to expect rupture in the alliance anytime. In the end it was simply a shadowboxing because neither the Congress nor the NC wanted to lose power and pelf.
Well the NC seemed more worried about the possibility of losing power if the Congress pulled out of the Government. And the Congress did not seem to be worried because it had a suitable alternative in forging an alliance with the PDP as had been the case between 2002 and 2007.
The Congress high command in general and Rahul Gandhi in particular lent full support to Omar Abdullah despite repeated pleas from senior leaders of the State unit of the Congress for either bridling the NC leadership or severing ties with it. Infact the main feature of the year that is on its last leg was that despite severe odds and pulls and pressures the NC-Congress alliance survived and is expected to complete its full six-year term.
Though the security scenario witnessed fluctuations it did not register any alarming dimensions except for escalation in border conflict owing to repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops, which included crossborder breezy raids in which two Indian soldiers were killed, one having been beheaded. There were series of infiltration bids by militants but the troops, guarding the LoC and the IB, foiled over 80 per cent of these ingress bids. This resulted in improved security situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
The most funny political scenario that kept people busy was continued factional feud in the BJP and the Congress. For the full year efforts were made to motivate loyalists and the dissidents in the State unit of the Congress to unite but these efforts had failed to bear any fruit. The result was that the two factions kept on travelling on parallel lines. The tussle between the loyalists and the dissidents in the State unit of the Congress had encouraged Omar Abdullah for taking the senior Congress leaders, including the party Ministers, for a ride. And the party high command has been held responsible for its failure in bridging the gulf between those who supported the PCC chief, Saif-ud-Din Soz and the dissidents headed by the Union Health Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad.
On the BJP front a section in the State unit of the party has been in favour of allowing seven party MLAs, who were expelled on charge of anti-party activities, to return to the party fold but some senior leaders continued to oppose it. The matter is still under the consideration of top BJP leaders, including Narendra Modi.
If during 2013 the Congress and the BJP lost some of its ground the PDP, led by the Muftis, is said to have gained what others, including the National Conference, had lost. What seemed to have surprised the BJP and other Jammu centric parties is the way the PDP has gradually gained added foothold in the Jammu region. Right after its grand success in 1996 Assembly election the National Conference is seen on a down the hill journey notwithstanding the fact that it bagged more Assembly seats than the Congress and the PDP in 2002 and 2008 elections. But that cannot be its achievement because winning 28 seats by a 75-year old party in 2008 against a 14-year old PDP which won 21 seats. And the next Assembly elections is likely to be a close contest between the two main political rivals, the PDP and the NC.
The NC led coalition rule shared major failures in resolving the problem of unemployment, corruption, under utilisation of funds meant for various development schemes. If there has been gradual increase in production in the sector of agriculture the Government's failure in attracting any sizeable private and public investment in the sector of industry has caused major decline in industrial production. Government's failure in resolving acute problem of electricity shortage may prove an Achilles heel for the National Conference during the next Assembly poll.
As a result of faulty policy on economic development the state had to bank on heavy import of foodgrains and all other consumer items. The state had to bank on central financial assistance for its plan and non-plan sectors.
Though security agencies, including the Army were responsible for improvement in the security situation because of decline in infiltration and in incidents of violence, the NC-Congress ruling coalition remained engaged in improving political and economic atmosphere by simply resorting to trial and error methods. The result has been mere chaos. |
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