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| State of Congress in J&K, Battle-lines clearly drawn | | | NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Jan 29: Is the Congress party in Jammu is over? Leave alone Kashmir where the Congress has little or no stable support-base and where the political behaviour of most of the Congress leaders, including ministers, and NC and PDP leaders and separatists is almost identical in the sense that they always identify themselves with those who have scant regard for India. Take, for example, Abdul Ghani Vakil's stand on the hoisting of national flag at Srinagar's Lal Chowk. The answer to the question seems to be in the affirmative.
That the Congress has not been able to hold its own could be seen from the fact that most of the Congress ministers have not been able to check the NC, which has been leading the coalition government since January 5, 2009. They have virtually abdicated everything in favour of the NC. With the result, it is the NC that is playing all the shots, dictating terms to the Congress and pursuing policies all aimed at widening further the already rather wide gulf between the state and the state, demolishing the Congress edifice in Jammu and setting the followers of one religion against the other in Jammu province to further its divisive and communal agenda.
During the past two years, the ruling NC initiated measures which were patently Kashmir-centric and militant-friendly and which made the parties like the BJP and the JKNPP to accuse the Congress party of being a party to all the actions the NC-led government took to accommodate the extremists and separatists, harass and demoralize the Army and paramilitaries. So much so, both these parties repeatedly described the Congress as the B-team of the NC.
Besides, both the BJP and the JKNPP repeatedly accused the Congress of giving unstinted and unqualified support to the NC so that it could jeopardize the legitimate interests of the people of Jammu province. The fact of the matter is that both the BJP and the JKNPP hold the Congress responsible for all the woes of Jammu and worst kind of discrimination with it. And, they have been successful to a considerable extent in tarnishing the image of the Congress.
Ironically, the Congress leadership never defended itself. Nor did it ever try to counter the relentless campaign directed against it by the BJP and the JKNPP. The truth is that the Congress leadership remained mum, thus creating an impression that the Congress is helpless and that it has no other option but to religiously follow the dictates of the arrogant, controversial and questionable NC leadership. So much so that the Congress leadership didn't counter the chief minister's uncle, MLA and former minister Mustafa Kamal, who umpteen times condemned the Congress as a party of cheaters. It's no wonder then that the Congress has lost considerable ground to its political opponents in Jammu province, its core constituency.
What added further to the woes of the Congress in Jammu was the very soft attitude of the Congress high command and the Congress-led UPA government towards the NC and chief minister Omar Abdullah. That the Congress high command and the Congress-led UPA Government was standing solidly behind the NC and Omar Abdullah became quite evident when the union home minister and foreign minister defended the chief minister's October 7 assembly accession/merger statement and when the prime minister, the home minister and Congress national spokespersons supported the chief minister's negative and provocative stand on the hoisting of national flag in Srinagar on the Republic Day. All this only served to lower the position of the Jammu-based Congress ministers, leaders and workers in the eyes of the people of Jammu, who didn't take kindly to the bitter opposition of the state government towards the Ekta Yatra and it was coupled with the policy of senseless repression and oppression against the BJP workers, and even senior party leaders and imposed wartime restrictions.
As if all this was not enough to damage the Congress in Jammu and strengthen further the Ncin Kashmir, the factional fight between JKPCC chief Saif-ud-Din Soz and union minister and former chief minister and JKPCC chief Ghulam Nabi Azad assumed alarming proportions, thus exposing the party's weaknesses at a time when a united and concerted action was needed to not only counter the propaganda unleashed by the BJP and the JKNPP but also to establish that the Congress was quite capable of asserting its position and exercising co-equal powers with its coalition partner, the NC. That the battle-lines between the two factions have been clearly drawn become very clear when they decided to organize two functions in Jammu almost at the same time to remember and pay tributes to Mahatma Gandhi. One function will be organized by Gandhi Global Family, which is being headed by Azad. This function will be organized at Parade Ground, Jammu, at 10 a.m. and Azad will be the chief guest. The other function will be organized by the JKPCC at Lower Roop Nagar (Muthi), Jammu, at 10.30 a.m. and the chief guest will be Susheel Kumar Shinde, union minister for power. This means the situation has reached to such a pass.
This doesn't augur well for the Congress, which is already passing through very critical times across the country, including J&K. The disturbed state needs a strong, stable and faction-free Congress to take on the NC and other subversive forces. It just can't afford to tread the path it has been treading for quite sometime now. Any failure on the part of the Congress leadership to present a united face would not only ensure its demise in Jammu, but would also help the subversives of all varieties. |
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