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| Need to pursue Indira Gandhi’s line on J-K | | DIRECT, MINCING NO WORDS -- I | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Nov 21: On Friday, at least three ministers, a few senior Congress leaders, including JKPCC office-bearers, and some party workers gathered at the party headquarters, Jammu, to remember former AICC president and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on the occasion of her 93rd birth anniversary. From the speeches, which were made by one particular minister and one particular JKPCC vice-president, it became clear that most of the Congressmen in Jammu were extremely unhappy with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and that there is a powerful faction within the Congress that wants the party high command to revive the 2002 power-sharing formula: rotational Chief Minister-ship.
From the speeches, it also became quite evident that there was a disconnect and distrust between the ministers and the party functionaries, besides workers at the grassroots level, and that the Congress and the National Conference did not share each other’s views on a number of issues. It also became quite clear that certain JKPCC office-bearers were not happy with the role the Congress ministers played in the Cabinet meetings and that they wanted the coordination committee to discuss all important issues, policy-relating matters and reach a broader consensus.
In other words, the meeting, which was organized to remember the contribution of the Late Prime Minister, virtually turned out to be meeting on the awkward situation the Congress party is currently in both in terms of party politics within the Congress and relations with the alliance partner National Conference. One can understand the reasons behind the widespread discontent within the party and dissatisfaction over the manner of functioning of the Chief Minister. The reasons are obvious. The most notable reasons are two – utter failure of the Congress ministers to take along the party functionaries and workers at the grassroots level and the dictatorial attitude of the Chief Minister, who has been making not just controversial statements but also making policy pronouncements unilaterally or without taking the Congress party into confidence, thus ridiculing the Congress, lowering its position in the eyes of the people and eroding its support-base systematically even in the Jammu province.
What should the JKPCC and the Congress ministers, particularly those belonging to Jammu province do to restore the political ground the party has already lost, and continue to lose to its adversaries like the BJP and the Panthers Party? They have no other option but to pursue the Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s line on Jammu and Kashmir. It’s true that she had committed a political blunder in 1975, when she brought down her own party’s government in the state and handed over the state power to Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah on a platter overlooking the fact that the Sheikh was a staunch believer in the concept of plebiscite and greater autonomy, bordering on virtual sovereignty. But it is also true that subsequently she did try to rectify the mistake and strengthen not only the Congress party but also teach the votaries of autonomy a lesson.
Sometimes even astute political leaders take controversial decisions or calculated risks under the premise that their decisions might click. Sometimes such controversial decisions click and produce the desired results. Sometimes such decisions boomerang as happened in the case of Jammu and Kashmir.
It happened during the time of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and it also happened during the regime of Indira Gandhi. For example, Nehru committed a major political mistake first in October 1947 and later on in October 1949 hoping that his decisions would work and help promote in Kashmir politics based on democratic and economic issues. In 1947, he involved Sheikh Abdullah in the process of the state’s accession to India and shifted the political equilibrium from Jammu to Kashmir or transferred political power from Jammu to Sheikh Abdullah of Kashmir ignoring his highly controversial credentials and anti-Jammu attitude. In October 1949, he made the law-makers incorporate Article 370 in the Indian Constitution to keep the Sheikh in good humour. Both of his decisions boomeranged because the decisions were fundamentally flawed. He wanted to tackle the communal Sheikh by according legitimacy to his politics of communalism. It was clear at the very outset that Nehru was destined to be a failure and it happened in no time. For, armed with absolute political and legislative powers, the Sheikh rode roughshod and tried to the hilt to communalize the whole polity and ensure the Kashmir’s virtual segregation from India.
Realizing his mistake, Nehru took no time in taking action against the Sheikh and undertook definite measures to integrate the state into India constitutionally and politically. He only got the Sheikh removed from the post of Wazir-e-Azam, but also got him arrested on the charge of sedition. All this happened in August 1953. The Sheikh spent several years in jail. In between, Nehru brought the state under the purview of several Central laws. (To be concluded) |
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