news details |
|
|
| Congress has a spokesperson in J-K but he seldom speaks | | | NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Nov 19: The sensitive border state of J&K has been in turmoil since months. The Chief Minister, who belongs to National Conference (NC) has been, instead of tackling the fast-deteriorating situation, particularly in the turbulent Kashmir Valley, adding more fuel to the fire by making highly controversial statements. So much so, he is taking the Congress party for a ride, making policy statements unilaterally, repeatedly questioning the very status of J&K to India and articulating views that only suit Pakistani and separatists and communalists in Kashmir. Besides, he is pursuing Kashmir-centric policies and not dispensing justice to the state's other regions.
What the Chief Minister has been doing and saying has only helped the BJP and the Panthers Party whose support-base is limited to certain areas in the Jammu province. Both these parties - apart from other small political groups - have upped their ante and started no-holds-barred propaganda to lower the position of the Congress in the eyes of the people and consolidate and expand further their support-base in the Jammu province. The BJP, which otherwise is politically bankrupt and which had in the past hobnobbed with the NC umpteen times, fishing in the troubled waters and campaigning against the Congress to create an impression that the Congress, not the NC, is responsible for all the troubles afflicting J&K. The otherwise uninspiring and inarticulate BJP leadership has not only been propagating that it is the Congress party that is the mother of all ills in the state, but is also squarely responsible for the neglect of Jammu province. The Panthers Party is also doing the same and systematically eroding the support-base of the Congress party.
Ironically, the Congress is on the defensive. Its Jammu-based spokesperson, who is also MLC, has never thought it proper to counter the propaganda unleashed by the BJP and the Panthers Party. He has never defended his party. He has been maintaining silence despite grave provocation and despite the fact that the BJP has repeatedly accused the Congress party of damaging "national interests" and jeopardizing the general political and economic rights of the people of Jammu province and the Panthers Party has been day in and day out dubbing the Congress party as the "B-team" of the National Conference.
The truth is that the Congress spokesperson remains always invisible. He appears on the scene only when the Congress organizes meetings to observe "birth and death anniversaries" or when the Congress holds meetings to "welcome certain actions of the Congress-led UPA Government" or "when the Congress issues welcome statements." According to sources within the party, the "Congress workers are quite unhappy," they have come to believe that the "only role of the Congress party in Jammu is to hold meetings on the birth and death anniversaries and issue statements hailing the Congress high command." Sources within the party also reveal that "resentment is brewing among the Congress workers" and that they want the spokesperson to play a "pro-active role" and the senior functionaries in the party to "act against the NC so that the support-base of the Congress party remains intact and the BJP and the Panthers Party are taken on in an effective manner."
The Congress spokesperson and senior party leaders would do well to take note of the growing discontent within the party. They would also do well to behave like the Kashmir-based Congress leaders and workers behave. The Kashmir-based and Ladakh-based Congress ministers, leaders and workers assert to protect and advance further the interests of their respective regions. What the party workers in Jammu want their Jammu-based ministers, leaders and spokesman to do is to imitate their Kashmiri and Ladakhi counterparts and defend the interests of the region to which they belong. This is what the sources within the Congress party in Jammu reveal. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
