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| Omar Abdullah: Not taken off as yet as CM | | |
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 8: 15 months of Omar Abdullah rule will be over on April 5. During these months of his rule, the Chief Minister didn't do anything that indicated that he had the necessary administrative skills to deliver on any front. The prevailing anarchical conditions in Kashmir and discontent and disaffection among the masses in all the three regions of the state and government employees, the backbone of government, are the immediate results of the administrative system he handed down to the people.
The Chief Minister messed up everything; gave a particular type orientation to the administrative apparatus; transferred officials in a vindictive manner on several occasions to put the National Conference supporters at vital places; spent most of his time outside the state leaving everything to the whims of persons interested only in their own well-being; and made several controversial statements the result of which was negative both for the suffering people of the state and New Delhi. Sometimes it appeared that he was a non-existent Chief Minister. In fact, several political commentators in and outside the state have described as a "non-existent Chief Minister".
The Chief Minister should have felt obliged to the Congress high command for the reason it asked the state unit of the Congress to work under him so that he could remain Chief Minister for a full term of six years - suggestion the local Congress leaders swallowed with a pinch of salt. It was natural.
After all, the arrangement had all the ingredients that would help only the National Conference consolidate its position in the vital administrative set-up and expand its otherwise fast-shrinking constituency, thus jeopardizing the long-term interests of the Congress party, particularly in the Jammu province, which has all along, barring on a couple of occasions, pinned faith in the Congress policies and helped it occupy the most important position in the Jammu politics.
But the Chief Minister did not reciprocate the high command's highly generous gesture. It must be noted that the National Conference had contested the last assembly elections under the leadership of Farooq Abdullah, who had declared on several occasions during the course of election campaign that he would become Chief Minister in case his party emerged victorious. It should also be noted that had Omar Abdullah organized the assembly elections under his own leadership, the party would have drawn a blank.
That the claim of Farooq Abdullah was ignored and Omar Abdullah was made the Chief Minister was something for which he should have thanked the Congress high command thousand times. What happened was indeed an act of dishonesty on the part of Omar Abdullah, who, according to many political observers, "conspired against his own father to become the State Chief Minister". It's no wonder that the father and the son duo do not have cordial relations; both of them have been airing different views on issues of great import.
That Omar Abdullah turned out to be unaccommodating became clear on more than one occasion, the last being the one concerning the Lal Chowk terrorist attack. Both the Union Home Minister and the Defence Minister expressed their grave concern over the deadly Lal Chowk terrorist attack and expressed the view, and rightly, that the situation in Srinagar had turned alarming and that Pakistan must behave if it wanted the resumption of the stalled composite dialogue process. Omar Abdullah should have shared this rational view. But he did not do that. Instead, he underplayed the Lal Chowk incident and once again asked New Delhi to resume the dialogue process with Pakistan overlooking the ongoing terrorist-related violence in Kashmir. He behaved in a manner that only helped Pakistan.
Earlier, he had embarrassed the Prime Minister, who visited Kashmir to inaugurate the newly constructed railway line. He embarrassed the Prime Minister and others who had accompanied him by saying that the people of Kashmir had not sacrificed their lives for funds from the Centre; that the Kashmir problem was political and it should be dealt with as such. In other words, he spoke the language that Pakistan and the Pakistani agents operating in the state speak. He should have been sacked there and then as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi had done in the past in 1953, 1977 and 1984. They had sacked Sheikh Abdullah and Farooq Abdullah on the ground that they had become a threat to national security and the country's unity and integrity. But the generous Prime Minister let Omar Abdullah go scot-free.
If the Chief Minister remained dishonest towards those who gave him the office of Chief Minister on a platter, he also bungled in several other areas. Take, for example, the manner in which his administration dealt with the cult of violence as well as the terrorists and separatists, called freedom fighters. His administration bungled to the extent that it added to the miseries of the common people.
He also functioned in a style that enabled the otherwise frustrated and defeated separatists and rank communalists to regroup and reorganize themselves and instigate Kashmiri people against the Indian State. Leave alone the mishandling of the unfortunate Shopian incident, which established that Omar Abdullah, who also held the Home portfolio, had no touch with his own police department and that he had the audacity of making statements, which, instead of diffusing the situation, would add more fuel to the fire.
Likewise, his statements on the Justice Saghir Ahmed's report had created a sort of furore across the state in general and Jammu province and Ladakh region in particular. The people of these two provinces, who have suffered in the past because of the Kashmiri leadership's indifferent attitude towards them, had been given to understand by the Chief Minister and his party that they had no place in his scheme of things and that they have to live in an autonomous state he and the National Conference have been trying to achieve.
The fact of the matter is that his political conduct has not helped the state and the people of Kashmir in any way. Instead, he has allowed the opposition to dictate terms and set the agenda, with his government always on the defensive. The worst aspect of the whole situation was that he didn't think it prudent to take on the opposition on the floor of the assembly and the council.
It may appear unbelievable but it is a fact that he entered the council during the current budget session only twice and that too for a few minutes and that he treated the assembly in the way he treated the council. So much so, he did not reply questions and supplementary questions put by the members of the opposition parties. He asked his juniors to reply on his behalf. The situation under him has deteriorated to the extent that he and his ministers did not give suitable replies to as many as 90 per cent questions put by the opposition parties. It is only natural that the keen-Omar Abdullah government watchers have refused to give his government even five per cent marks as far as its performance in the assembly and council was concerned.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah needs to change his style of working. Besides, he needs to redesign his administrative policies, including the recruitment policy, transfer policy and policy towards Jammu and Ladakh taking into consideration their political and economic aspirations, as also the fact that they are against autonomy. His government cannot go on like this; it just cannot afford to ride roughshod.
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