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| Omar right, will his NC also abandon the controversial autonomy plank? | | NEWS ANALYSIS | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Sep 28: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is absolutely right when he says that “education is fundamental right of everybody and Government efforts are only aimed at restoring the same to the children of Kashmir valley, whose education suffered due to unrest during the past some months," and that “education should be conflict neutral.” He is also right when he takes on the separatists like Syed Ali Shah Geelani and says that “nobody can deprive the children of their fundamental right to education.”
However, he does disappoint everyone who believes in the rule of law and respect the institutions of the state when he expresses the “hope” that separatist Geelani and others of his ilk “will cooperate with the Government instead of targeting the students.” This is a sign of weakness. He is the executive head of the state. It is his fundamental duty to provide foolproof security to everyone and ensure educational and other institutions function normally. It is also his duty to punish those who take the law of the land into their hands. Geelani represents evil and he and others of his ilk need to be dealt with accordingly. One can only hope and pray that the Chief Minister would come up to the expectations of the people and induce everyone in Kashmir to send their wards to the educational institutions to acquire education.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also does well when he asks the people to rise above petty political considerations and work together for the progress of the state. Only an insane person would disagree with Omar Abdullah. Political considerations do play a negative role; they do pit one section of the society against the other and thus divide and not unite the people. As a matter of fact, most of the ills afflicting the today’s nation are the byproduct of vote-bank politics based on narrow political considerations, including the urge to capture power by all means fair and foul. Hence, when Omar Abdullah talks about progress and disapproves of petty political considerations, he only talks sense.
Ironically, however, Omar Abdullah belongs to the National Conference that has all along given utmost importance to petty political considerations, thus creating in the state an extreme form of inter-regional bitterness, animosity and rancour as well as communal divide. It has all through advocated, and continues to advocate, a religio-political ideology that is not only one region and one community-centric, but that also goes against the national ethos.
The case in point is the insistence of the National Conference on restoration of the pre-1953 politico-constitutional status – something the people of Jammu and Ladakh and religious and ethnic minorities in the state abhor and vehemently oppose. And, they oppose because this demand is communally motivated, as also because it is aimed at unsettling the settled in Jammu and Kashmir, driving the people of the state away from the national mainstream, establishing a local oligarchy where the ruling elite would exercise unbridled legislative, executive and judicial powers and the common people deprived of their civil and political rights, painting the Indian Constitution and the Indian laws black and pandering to the communal elements in the Kashmir Valley.
Omar Abdullah knows it full well that the people of Jammu and Ladakh and several religious and ethnic minorities in the state have all along sought to link their political destiny with New Delhi and still he and his party insist on what these people hate the most. Hence, it would be only appropriate for him and his National Conference to give effect to what he said in Jammu on Monday while speaking in the Government Medical College. He and his party must abandon the autonomy path and, instead, start treading the path leading up to New Delhi. Such a transformation on his part and on the part of his party would help the Chief Minister accomplish what he hinted at while addressing a large gathering in the hospital. Charity begins at home. Omar Abdullah knows it. He is at the helm. Let him set the example and others follow suit. Even otherwise, he has no other option because autonomy is an unrealizable goal.
Besides, Omar Abdullah’s government should change its attitude towards Jammu and Ladakh, which his government has been ignoring and discriminating against. In fact, it is time for him to divert his attention away from the over-fed, over-developed and prosperous Kashmir and turn to Jammu and Ladakh where the plight of the people is highly miserable and pathetic. If he does so, he would be able to harmonize the inter-regional relations and bridge the gap between the communities.
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