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| Congress all out to expose its coalition partner | | NC's mass contact programme | | Rustam
JAMMU, June 5: National Conference (NC) has planned to launch a mass contact programme to educate public opinion about its performance and achievements. The decision is obviously taken in the aftermath of its massive defeat at the hands of the main opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP), which won all the three Lok Sabha seats in the Valley with an impressive margin and got 20 per cent of the total votes polled, as against the NC's tally of less than 10 per cent votes. According to the Election Commission, the NC got 11.1 per cent votes. It is not true in the sense that these figures also included the Congress votes. In any case, the PDP performed exceedingly well and the NC suffered the worst-ever electoral defeat - a defeat that has rattled, shocked and alarmed the NC leadership. It is only natural.
After all, the NC ruled the roost in the state for decades. The reported decision of the NC to launch a mass contact programme and the changes the party leadership plans to effect in the party structure, besides decision on the employment policy and retirement age, need to be viewed in this context. The rattled NC leadership wishes to revive the party and, hence, the mass contact programme and changes in the part structure and decisions calculated to win over sections of society in the Valley. It is a different story that the victorious PDP has upped its ante against the NC and decided to leave no stone unturned to snatch from the NC whatever little political space it still has in the Valley, which used to be its core constituency not so long ago.
For the NC, the determined PDP is not the only problem. It also has a problem in its hand created by the equally alarmed and desperate comprehensively defeated Congress. In other words, the NC is facing a two-pronged attack in the Valley and four pronged attack in Jammu. Since the PDP is in the opposition, its attack on the NC could be considered by pro-NC elements politically motivated. But it is the Congress, which is the ally of the NC, that is creating an awkward situation for the NC in general and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in particular. A number of senior Congress leaders have adopted a very hostile attitude towards Omar Abdullah and members of his coterie and they include JKPCC chief Saif-ud-Din Soz and Abdul Gani Vakil. What Soz said the other day about the decision of the state Government to increase the retirement age of Government employees is too well-known. He had lambasted the NC leadership saying the credit for the decision goes to him and the Congress, and not to the NC, as he was the first to raise the issue quite sometime back. The NC, on the other hand, reacted saying the credit goes to Omar Abdullah and the NC. "What is wrong in claiming credit for the age enhancement. By trying to claim credit…for which it played a little role, the Congress is doing no good to the state," said the NC. The struggle for taking credit would harm both the Congress and the NC in the long run for obvious reasons. A coalition that doesn't speak in one language only suffers political losses and loses people's goodwill and confidence.
However, it is leaders like Vakil who are causing more damage to the NC and Omar Abdullah. Vakil has even questioned the credentials of Omar Abdullah and described the state Government as corrupt. The Chief Minister must prove his credentials in whatever little time that is at his disposal failing which both the NC and the Congress are "bound to face defeat in the Assembly elections," he has said, adding that the coalition candidates lost the elections because of corruption, mismanagement and misgovernance.
"Politicians involved in corruption and scams are not touched. Only middle rank officials are booked," he had also said on Tuesday. Since Vakil and similar other Congress leaders have been condemning the Omar Abdullah-led Government of which the Congress is a part, such statements are being taken by the people on their face value. It is difficult to say that either of the two coalition partners would maintain cool considering the very difficult situation they have been in for quite sometime. There are reasons to believe that the war of words between the two would become bitter and bitter in the coming days and it is this that will cause more harm to them. Indeed, it is advantage to the PDP in Kashmir and BJP in Jammu. As for the Panthers Party, it is also batting from a weak turf. |
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