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| Can CM Omar be PM Omar of J&K? | | |
SANT KUMAR SHARMA
Jammu, Jan 1: The last month of 2009 saw Justice (retd) Sageer Ahmed submit a report on the issue of autonomy for Jammu & Kashmir. And suddenly there is jubilation in the state.
The National Conference (NC) supporters are celebrating, saying their stance on the issue has been vindicated. Of course, if the report is implemented in letter and spirit, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will become Prime Minister Omar Abdullah. PM of J&K under the pre-1953 nomenclature, that is.
The ``autonomy’’ celebrations in the NC camp are lukewarm because it remembers, bitterly, what happened to its autonomy ambitions in 2000.
In fact, the problem is that the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is planning ``anti-autonomy’’ celebrations on a larger scale than the NC. Come what may, we will not let the report be implemented, the party leaders claim, in private conversations and openly.
The BJP had been licking its wounds (till Sageer report came in) after getting 11 seats in the 2008 assembly elections. It had expected between 18 and 20, and top guns were not ready to accept a figure of less than 15.
Its leaders were dreaming of participating in a National Conference (NC)-led government with deputy chief ministership. But that did not happen because of the electoral mathematics, post-Amarnath land row.
The party leaders are now jubilant as they know instinctively that they can recreate July-August 2008 situation, riding on the anti-autonomy sentiment in large parts of the Jammu region. Of course, the three legislators of the Panthers Party in the assembly too will contribute handsomely in this effort.
Add a couple of independents like Ashwani Sharma of Bishnah and Charanjit Singh Jasrotia of Kathua. If they want to have any real chances of victory, they will have to oppose autonomy, tooth and nail, in their areas.
That makes it a solid block of 11 BJP + 3 Panthers Party + 2 Independents = 16 legislators, in whose areas the very concept of autonomy is an anathema among large sections.
Not that the autonomy concept can easily be sold, politically, and electorally, by the Congress bigwigs like deputy chief minister Tara Chand in Khour, Sham Sharma in Akhnoor or Raman Bhalla in Gandhi Nagar constituency.
So far, they have kept mum and their silent is pregnant, with endless possibility of opposing the autonomy demand on a future date.
In the year 2000, Omar Abdullah was a minister of state in the Central government as his party, the NC, was a part of the NDA alliance. The autonomy ambitions of the party were nipped firmly in the bud after it had passed the relevant resolution in June 2000, rather unceremoniously.
In the year 2010, Farooq Abdullah is a cabinet minister in the Congress-led government at the Centre. Yet, the Congress is unlikely to take a decision for the grant of greater autonomy to the state in a hurry.
Its focus is now on Telengana and the Naxalite problems, and on trying to win the next West Bengal elections with the help of Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress.
Who wants another Amarnath-type agitation in the Jammu region, with even Ladakh (Leh particularly) flexing its anti-autonomy muscles?
The NC can celebrate now that the dead horse of autonomy, killed in 2000 by the NDA has been revived by his lordship. But the chances of Omar the CM becoming Omar the PM, of course of Jammu & Kashmir only, are remote as of now.
If Amarnath land row drove a wedge last year between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Congress, the Sageer report sure can do it between the NC and the Congress in the New Year.
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