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| Full term of six years for NC will harm Congress, nation | | STARK REALITY | |
RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 14: The reported decision of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) that the Congress would lead the coalition government in J&K after Omar Abdullah of the NC completes three years in office on January 4, 2012 is a rational and politically correct decision. The implementation of this decision would not only brighten the electoral prospectus in the state but would also be in the larger national interest. Replacement of the NC rule with the Congress rule would be in the larger national interest because in a state like J&K, which is a troubled state, only a national party should rule. The rule of the Kashmir-based partiers like the NC and the PDP is just not desirable, notwithstanding the fact that both these formations are registered with the Election Commission of India.
The agendas of the NC and the PDP are as divisive. Both these parties have been treading paths, which, instead of bridging the gulf between the state and New Delhi, have been widening further the already rather wide gulf between the two, thus adding to the Indian difficulties in J&K. The ideologies of both these parties are sectarian and based on medieval perceptions and conceptions. Both these parties, like the Kashmir-based separatist outfits and Pakistan, believe in two/three-nation theory and repeatedly say that the political fate of J&K is still to be decided. In effect, both these formations, like Pakistan and the Kashmiri separatists, describe J&K as a disputed territory.
That the NC and the PDP have scant regard for the Indian Constitution could be seen from their demands that range from greater autonomy to self-rule. Both the demands mean that the NC and the PDP stand for a political system that is outside the Indian Constitution. Besides, both these groupings are for a settlement that harms the Indian sovereign interests in the state and recognize one way or the other the Pakistani claim over the Indian J&K.
Not just this. Both the NC and the PDP are fundamentally Kashmir-centric parties. They have no regard for the sentiments and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Ladakh. Both these groupings could be legitimately accused of creating not only regional tensions by adopting discriminatory policies but also dividing the people of the state on communal lines.
The fact of the matter is that both these formations have not only harmed the state polity and created schism in the society but also jeopardized the national interests in the state. The Congress had intervened in the past several times to bring things in Kashmir under control. So much so, the Congress governments at the Centre, which were headed by Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, had to take some extreme steps to rein in the negative forces in the state. While in 1953, Nehru got the then J&K Wazir-e-Azam Sheikh Abdullah dismissed and arrested on the ground that the latter had been indulging in anti-India activities, in 1977, Indira Gandhi got the Sheikh Abdullah-led government dismissed on the ground that it had become a threat to national security. She also got dismissed the Farooq Abdullah-led government in 1984 on similar grounds. Nehru was so upset over the activities of Sheikh Abdullah that he said: "Kashmir is lost to us".
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the NC is the root cause of all the troubles facing the nation in J&K and that the PDP is the other face of the NC. Both these formations have played havoc with the institution of the state and the people. It would be too much to expect that these formations would ever reform themselves and join the national mainstream. They will not. Instead, they have indulged in the game of one-upmanship in the past, they are doing the same at present and they would do the same in future as well because their constituency is Kashmir, where only a particular type of politics clicks. Both these parties believe in rabble-rousing and their agenda is not only to grab state power but also to hold the people of the state aloof from the national mainstream.
It appears that the CWC has taken note of the antecedents and credentials of the NC. The reported decision that it would not allow Omar Abdullah to rule over the state after January 4, 2012 can be viewed in this context. Even otherwise, why should the Congress allow the NC to complete full term of six years? After all, the NC has only 28 MLAs in a house of 87, even less then 33 per cent. Moreover, it would be a gross injustice with the people of Jammu province if some Jammu-based MLA is not appointed Chief Minister on January 5, 2012.
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