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| Congress and PDP on the offensive: Coalition still under cloud | | |
Jammu, March 28,
Both the Congress and the PDP have gone on the offensive in Jammu and Kashmir following defiant postures having been adopted by Chief Minister,Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad.
While the Chief Minister has decided to go ahead with his plan of convening a meeting of the state cabinet here on Thursday the PDP leadership has decided to leave the issue of participation of its ministers in the cabinet meet to the party’s political Affairs Committee. The Committee is scheduled to meet in Srinagar on Thursday in the morning.
A senior PDP leader told Kashmir Independent Press today “we have not yet decided anything about the participation of our cabinet ministers in the cabinet meeting. Since the meeting is scheduled to be held in the morning the PDP ministers could attend the cabinet meeting, slated to be held in Jammu in the evening, if the PAC decided in its favour.”
He said while on one hand Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and AICC Chief, Ms Sonia Gandhi, had preferred to keep the PDP-Congress coalition Government intact, on the other the Chief Minister was trying to register support from other coalition partners to his opposition to withdrawal of troops.
What seems to have angered the PDP leadership is the way Mr Azad hosted a tea party in which MLAs and MLCs belonging to the Congress, PDF, Panthers Party and CPM were invited. It was not a simple tea party but an exercise on demonstrating unity among the Congress, PDF, PP, CPM against the PDP. The way a senior Congress minister, Mr Mangat Ram Sharma, asked the legislators, present at the tea party, to raise their hands in case they opposed the PDP demand for demilitarization. And hands were up for showing their solidarity with Mr Azad.
Reports said that Mr Azad did not want to take the offensive launched by the Mufti, during his talks with Dr Manmohan Singh and Ms Sonia Gandhi,against the Chief Minister. The Mufti had criticized the style of functioning of the Chief Minister who had been out and out to insult PDP ministers by canceling their orders.
However, another senior PDP leader and a close associate of Mufti Mohd. Sayeed said that “presence of PDP Ministers in Thursday’s cabinet meeting is not important. They have boycotted three cabinet meetings and if they do not attend another heaven will not fall.”He said that more important was the outcome of the meeting of the Political Affairs Committee.Asked whether the coalition has come under fresh threat the PDP leader said “there is no threat to the Government.It will survive once the problems were resolved.”
He indicated that the PAC meeting may favour participation of PDP ministers in the cabinet meeting once the centre announced the formation of the high level committee for carrying out time bound review of the security scenario with reference to withdrawal of troops from areas where the level of militancy related violence had declined |
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