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| J&K international issue, Congress mum, Delhi groping in the dark | | Omar's Open Revolt | | RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Nov 14: What Chief Minister Omar Abdullah told the local news agency, KNS, in Jammu (and not in Srinagar as was mentioned by this scribe by mistake in the first part of the two-part story on November 12) was not just his desperate bid to establish rapport with and cultivate his communal constituency in Kashmir but it also constituted an open revolt against New Delhi. Whatever he said was what Syed Ali Shah Geelani had been consistently saying since years.
His assertions that Jammu and Kashmir was an "international issue", that the "back-channel talks between these nations (India and Pakistan) will resume soon and my government will be part of these", that "these talks will be aimed at finding a permanent solution to the K-issue" and that "my (October 6 accession/merger) speech in the legislature is a history" and that "it reflects my way of thinking and New Delhi has no role to play in it" left none in any doubt whatever that he had crossed all the lines. His provocative and outrageous assertions also indicated as if New Delhi had already empowered him to exercise plenipotentiary powers and negotiate with Pakistan a truce over Jammu and Kashmir. Not a good omen.
It is indeed a matter of deep concern that the Congress party, which has been sharing power with the National Conference, has not taken note of the activities being indulged in by Omar Abdullah overlooking their adverse impact on the paramount national interests as well as its constituency in Jammu and elsewhere in the state. It is keeping mum and it is not understandable.
It's, however, true that the Congressmen have not taken kindly to what the Chief Minister told the KNS, but they have not mustered courage to take on and criticize the Chief Minister publicly and control him. They have been simply discussing the implications of what the Chief Minister said among themselves within the office premises and in their drawing rooms. They are feeling upset, but not expressing their unhappiness publicly.
That the Congress leadership is not happy with the Chief Minister can be seen from what JKPCC chief Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz and another senior party leader told the Jammu-based correspondent of a leading Delhi-based English language national daily. The JKPCC chief told the said correspondent that "as Chief Minister Omar Abdullah may be aware of this current development (read the acceptance of Geelani's five-point charter of demands) but I am personally not aware of any such demand accepted by New Delhi" and that "as far as I am concerned I have never used the term 'Kashmir dispute' in any of my utterances." "We use the term "Kashmir issue," he told the correspondent. As for another senior party leader, he told the said correspondent that "Omar is trying to salvage his lost pride by reaching out to his constituency in Kashmir but at the same time he is embarrassing us by repeatedly raising sensitive issues." He also told him that "it is high time we have to find a way out to put a full stop to immature and unwanted utterances of the Chief minister otherwise it will be too late for us to step out for damage control."
The meaning of what these Congress leaders told the correspondent of a national daily was loud and clear and it is not necessary to reflect further on this issue. However, it can be said that the response of the Congress leaders has been inadequate. They should have expressed these views publicly and taken up the matter with the party high command so that action could be taken against the revolting Chief Minister before it was too late. By not dissociating themselves publicly from what the Chief Minister said on November 11, the Congress party has simply provided an opportunity to its political opponents in Jammu to attack the Congress leadership and go to the extent of saying that the National Conference and the Congress party are hand-in-glove and that the Congress has given the Chief Minister the mandate to speak what he has been speaking in order to pander to communalists and separatists in Kashmir. It was only the other day that one senior BJP leader said that the National Conference and Congress had harmed the national interests more as compared to the Kashmiri extremists and separatists.
The fact of the matter is that the deeply concerned sections are not only accusing both the Congress and New Delhi of not reining in the controversial Chief Minister, but also of bartering the paramount national interests. It's time for the Congress and New Delhi to act and act fast. While the Congress has to assert its authority and tell the Chief Minister that he is not the chief determinant and that he must behave, New Delhi has to show the Chief Minister and Pakistani rulers their rightful place by making it loud and clear that New Delhi would not yield even an inch of the Indian territories and nor would it ever concede any demand that negates the Indian Constitution and emboldens secessionists in other part of the country. (Concluded) |
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