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| Question marks on the future of Congress in J&K??? | | | M.M. Khajooria
All India Congress, the grand old party was expected to wake up and put its act together after the terrible hammering in got in the Hindu belt of jammu, its core constituency in the last elections - BJP clocking an unprecedented 25 seats in the Legislative assembly. Remember BJP tally in the state assembly, not too long ago was confined to single digit.. That this should happen to the party which ruled the state for decades and earned the credit of nationalizing the state polity and crafting a modern democratic state from the debris of the monarchy and constitutional chaos that fallowed is indeed a matter of shame .Perhaps I,t deserved the punishment for the sin of ungrateful . It dumped great leaders, Bakshi Ghlam Mohd and GMSadiq who brought about this miracle. If Sheikh Mohd Abdullah brought India to the state, Bakshi indianised it while Sadiq integrated It with the mother country constitutionally, politically and administratively.
The beginning of the decline of the congress party can be traced to Indra-Abdulah accord o 1975 where under power was transferred to the great Sheikh whose party had nil representation in the Legislative assembly. At the organizational level political non-entities took over the leadership with predictable disastrous consequences . The party began to be run under Diktat from Delhi where the under-employed Netas happily indulged in their favorite pastime of promoting factionalism and "CHIMCHA GIRI". This has since become the Congress culture.
Historically, All Jammu ad Kashmir National Conference and All India Congress Committee had developed some kind of fraternal relations during the pre-independence era. From the Constituent Assembly days itself, the members from J&K formed part of the Congress bloc. Organizationally, no one had the problem with Sheikh Sahib heading the party as well as the government. After Sheikh was jailed and his followers formed the Plebiscite Front with Afzal Beg as its head, the mantle was taken over by Bakshi Ghulam Mohd and later by GM Sadiq who were also chief ministers..
The Congress party was formally launched in J&K in 1964 with CM Sadiq as the first President. After his demise and as per routine CM Mir Qasim took over. And then Indra-Abdullah accord struck like the proverbial bolt from the blue.
Sheikh Mohd Abdullah was infuriated and provoked into making reckless statements beginning the " RSpura Landmark" outburst by the ParjaParishid movement demanding total integration of the state with India-".EK VIDHAN, EK PARDHAN, EK NSHAN". Actually, he was not too much worried about the support that the movement received from Hindu Right. His anger was rooted in the suspicion that a powerful lobby within the Congress clandestinely backed the agitation. What fallowed is history.
When Siiekh Abdullah returned to power two hard facts stared him in the face. One. Jammu had rejected Parishid in all its incarnation and voted solidly for the National Conference and later the Congress. A shrewd politicians, he recognized that for the good of his party and the government , people of Jammu had to be taken on board. They had many grievances' and these were best channelized through Jammu leadership of his party. This gave birth to separate Provincial committees for All J&K National Conference fo Jammu and Kashmir and a unwritten convention to place one of the Vice Presidents of the State committee from Jammu. Looking at the political scenario post 2014 one finds Devinder Singh Rana the Provincial President of the" Kashmir centric" National wresting the Nagrota Assembly constituency from BJP defying the Modi Wave and emerging as the foremost political voice of Jammu. This is a tribute to the political sagacity and fore- sight of the great Sheikh.
The Congress party on the other hand chose to bet on personalities of Nehru, Indra Gandhi and Rajiv. After the demise of GM Sadiq and eclipse of Pandit Trilochan Dutt, the party lost even local charismatic leaders . Its base in Jammu was visibly shrinking. The courtiers of Delhi Durbar indulged in their favorite pastime of promoting factionalism happily day dreaming. It ceased to be a political party and was, as I once told Uma Shankar Dikshit the grand old man of the Congress, reduced to " mostly gang of daily wagers". Even after the party lost power, nobody bothered to even identify and address the glaring deficiencies in organizational structure which provided no avenue for development of Regional leadership, confident and bold enough to speak up for the rights and interests of Jammu, its core constituency, and forcefully project its numerous grievances . The response was ridiculous. An army of Vice Presidents was appointed who proudly carried the title on their latter pads and did nothing beyond furthering their own and their CHIMCHAS interest. No one heard the name the General Secretary , the kingpin of the organization. I recall the days when Pt. Trilochan Dutt was the General Secretary of the Party There was always a crowd of workers and common men with grievances at his residence and office. which they were certain would be taken care of by the Pandit provided he was convinced ofi ts genuineness. In comparison the President was a lesser political being, what ever his official status. I refer to this to draw attention to the high pedestal from which the party has fallen. In fact, the Durbari Delhi culture was lapped up by the feuding Jammu Congress pygmies in kowtowing to the State Congress leadership based in Kashmir.
Years back, Ghulam Rasool Kar, the then State Congress President was kind enough to drop in at my humble abode. WE discussed the future of Congress and I drew his attention to the need for constituting Regional Committees for all the three regions-Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh.It took some time but he was finally convinced of the need and urgency of doing so.He had another suggestion which I urged that we discuss only after the reorganization takes place . To my horror , on return from Delhi, he told me that his proposal was shot down by the so-called Congress Kashmir Experts and individual Kashmiri leaders ensconced in Delhi Durbar. Lot of water has since then flown down the Jhelum and the Tawi rivers Will the party wake up even now and reorganize and revamp the party structure placing right persons at right places on basis alone of popularity, party loyalty as distinct from toadyism, political clout, organizational capability and ability for team work. ?This and many other questions beg answers fro Rahul and his team.
The demise of BJP-PDP government and to put it mildly, the failure of BJP to come up to the expectations of the people of Jammu who had massively vote for that party offered an opportunity for the Congress to fill the vacuum and emerge as the dominant force in the on-going local bodies elections. This would have paved the way of victory in the next Assembly and national elections. But the criminal negligence of even not checking the voters list to ensure that names of their traditional supporters exist on the latest voters lists and the chaotic and irresponsible manner the candidates were selected does not auger well for the party in at least in "Hindu belt." However, there is still time to prepare for the State and National elections .Rahul Gandhi and his Think Tank needs to do some introspection and take urgent steps to reorganize the State Congress structure with intense focus of Regions and enforce , I repeat enforce discipline with zero tolerance for factionalism here in J&K and rein in the promoters of this fatal malady planted in the national capital. It is time the party realizes the harsh and basis reality that elections are about grass root level contacts with voters ensuring that names of your voter are on the official voters list, that they go to or are taken to the polling Booths and they actually vote. If this does not happen all other exertions were bound to come to not. |
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