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| Drabu rejects NC's autonomy demand | | Omar's problem compounded | | Neha
JAMMU, July 11: Working president of the National Conference (NC) and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his team, besides his uncle Mustafa Kamaal, have planned to contest the upcoming Assembly elections on the autonomy plank believing that their autonomy slogan could click and help them turn tables on the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in the Kashmir valley. Kashmir is the core constituency of both these parties and the possibility of a fierce and cut-throat competition between the two just cannot be overruled. In fact, the war of words between the two has already started. It is becoming bitter and shrill with each passing day. The PDP appears to be succeeding and the recent Lok Sabha election results established that the PDP has become a force to reckon with and the NC lost its sheen and appeal.
The NC has to surmount many political and ideological challenges. In Jammu and Ladakh, it is face to face with a nationalist constituency and in Kashmir it has been facing a serious ideological challenge from the PDP, which has rejected outrightly its autonomy concept and vouched for self-rule.
Autonomy concept of the NC cannot be a lasting solution to the Kashmir issue, the PDP leadership has been saying, and adding that self-rule alone could address the issues Kashmir has been facing. Only the other day, former chairman of J&K Bank, Haseeb Drabu, who joined the PDP on July 2 and who would be contesting the Assembly election on the PDP ticket from Rajpora (Kashmir), rejected outrightly the NC's autonomy concept and explained away his party's roadmap for resolution of Kashmir.
"The autonomy document is more about federalism and self-rule goes beyond federalism. Autonomy is from the Government of India. Self-rule is from the nation state of India. One confines itself to the issues of Centre-state relations. Infact, that can become a model of a good liberalized federal system in India but it is not seeking autonomy from the nation state of India whereas the self-rule document does.
So there is an element of nation state, constitution, joined empowerment and regional councils," he said while talking to the correspondent of one Kashmir-based English language daily.
"My writings from 1991 onward are there. Look at those writings and see if my ideology has changed. It hasn't. Yes, it has become more pragmatic. It has become more nuanced. It certainly hasn't seen a turn of what I believed in and what I today am articulating. I, at that time, argued in favour of ethno-nationalism. I still argue it.
If you look at the self-rule document, which was co-authored with Mr. (Muzaffar Hussain) Baig, you will see that ideology in that document as well.
I would like to ask is there a similar document elsewhere in the system that articulates with the same degree of clarity what is the roadmap for resolution of Kashmir.
It is the framework for resolution of Kashmir," Haseeb Drabu further said while explaining away the relevance of the self-rule doctrine. What Drabu said was self-explanatory.
It is difficult to say if the NC leadership would be able to compete with the PDP leadership which has been pulsating with renewed vigor after the Lok Sabha election.
There is hardly any leader left in the NC who could take on the PDP leadership. The old guards in the NC have been sidelined and Omar Abdullah and the likes of Tanvir Sadiq, Junaid Mattoo and so on have established control over the party. They are not that politically mature.
Infact, they are being dubbed as arrogant and uncouth and they use a political language that only irritates the people, instead of winning over them. There is no doubt that it is advantage to the PDP in the Valley. |
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