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| Omar’s woes mountunder coalition weight | | |
ABID SHAH
NEW DELHI, JAN 4: Despite the other day’s denial by a Jammu and Kashmir Government spokesman of a report that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah may recast his team of ministers to pave the way for new blood or a younger lot and to relieve certain old party hats to look after organisational business, the scope for such a move is not without basis.
This is mainly because of the goings on in the Congress. The party is a partner in the coalition led by Omar. Congress is also poised to reduce the age of its key players because of the young age of the party scion Rahul Gandhi. He had recently sent a Central party team to Srinagar and Jammu on a talent hunt mission so as to revamp the organisation, starting from forming its youth and students wings for Jammu and Kashmir.
Unlike this Omar’s party or the National Conference is run by his father who became a Central Minister in last May and, therefore, has to spend most of his time in Delhi, leaving organisational matters to Sheikh Nazir the NC general secretary who is also an uncle of sorts for Omar since Sheikh is older than even Omar’s father Farooq Abdullah.
Moreover, given the Congress track record vis-à-vis its present and past allies like Laloo Prasad Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan, the Communists, or Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh, all of them faced marginalisation in the form of their reducing electoral tally and clout whereas those of the Congress has started looking up in places like Uttar Pradesh or Bihar where earlier the Congress party has been otherwise becoming almost invisible.
Such a spectre may not escape attention of a sharp witted person like Omar since he has been not only close to Congress but has also campaigned for the coalition partner in Jharkhand during the recent polls held for Ranchi Assembly.
Not just this, Farooq Abdullah has been far from being comfortable ever since he shifted to the Centre. He has often differed from certain actions of his son but the senior Abdullah has been turning out to be helpless since Congress opted for his son as Chief Minister while joining the coalition with National Conference exactly a year ago from now.
Omar’s problem is that he cannot risk robbing his senior colleagues of their position or Ministry for the sake of organisational work that as per the today’s world’s wont are thought to be a lesser business than being a Minister; and, therefore, a spokesman of the State Government quickly denied reports indicating a possible reshuffle to drop certain Ministers from the Cabinet on the completion of a year in office by Omar.
It is here that Farooq Abdullah’s role becomes inevitable for when it comes to matching the growing might of the Congress in the State, Omar alone may fall short of experience, stature and tactics to deal with his coalition partner or to beat Congress in terms of appeal or popular support.
The imbalance in this respect because of Farooq Abdullah’s preoccupations in Delhi as a Central Minister has been becoming visible since the Pradesh Congress Party president Professor Saifuddin Soz spends most of his time in the State. This is because of a better Central party management of J&K affairs from Delhi by Congress whereas the NC president often remains trapped and has to be content with the fact that his son is running the show back in the State.
And he has yet five years to go except that the preconditions of the coalition, though best known to Omar and his father, may not foreclose the Congress option to place its bet on Opposition People’s Democratic Party anytime in between.
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