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| Pressure tactics: NC unlikely to sever ties with Congress | | New administrative units | | Rustam
JAMMU, Jan 29: Reports emanating from New Delhi suggest that working president of the National Conference and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah might sacrifice the Government that he has been leading since January 2009 and go to the people for seeking a fresh mandate. Reports suggested that he could sever ties with the Congress because the latter did not endorse his stand on the recommendations of the Mushtaq Ganai panel on new administrative units and that the Congress wanted to create new administrative units across the state taking into consideration the needs and aspirations of the people.
According to reports from New Delhi, the Congress high command ultimately appreciated the views of the local Congress leadership on the biased recommendations of Ganai and authorized the Congress members of the Cabinet-Sub-Committee to do what it thought proper and appropriate. If reports from New Delhi are to be believed, then it can be said that the CSC is for the rejection of the Ganai recommendations and creation of about 2,000 new administrative units across the state.
One report said that the mandate of the CSC headed by senior Congress leader and Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand was "more comprehensive" than the Ganai panel as its seven members visited most of the districts and held discussions with people and that the Ganai panel was only an official level Committee that made recommendations without appreciating the needs of the people inhabiting the three regions of the state.
It is important to note that crucial meetings took place in New Delhi between the Congress members of the CSC and senior Congress leaders, including Ambika Soni, in-charge Jammu and Kashmir, and Ghulam Nabi Azad and between Omar Abdullah and NC president and Union Minister Farooq Abdullah. The Congress high command, according to one report, supported the view of the local Congress leadership, as also the exercise undertaken by the CSC, and Farooq Abdullah told Omar Abdullah that he would be on his side and support whatever decision he took in the event of the Congress not toying his line or adopting a negative attitude towards the recommendations as contained in the Ganai panel report.
Now the question is: Will Omar Abdullah break his alliance with the Congress and go to the people to seek fresh mandate without completing his full term of six years? It is extremely unlikely that he would go so far considering the fact that the NC is known for its insatiable lust for power and pelf as well as for its compromises on its ideology to gain power or to retain control over the state power. A party that could share power even with the BJP could go to any extent to remain in power and enjoy the loaves and fishes of office. The truth is that Omar Abdullah is only using pressure tactics to make the Congress toe his line. The Congress would do well to call the NC's bluff, hold its ground firmly and go in for recommendations that dispense justice to the deserving regions and deserving people. In other words, the CSC headed by the Congress would do well to compensate the ignored Jammu province and Ladakh by recommending adequate number of administrative units, including atleast five more districts in Jammu province. It should tell Chief Minister Omar Abdullah that it cannot be a party to any decision that is not state-centric. |
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