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| If Azad is correct, then the Cong in Jammu is doomed! | | | NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Jan 30: Interacting with reporters on Saturday at Press Club, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the NC, which is responsible for destruction of the Congress in Jammu province and elsewhere in the state, would rule or misrule - whatever one may call it -- the state for full term of six years and that the possibility of any Congressman, even a Congressman from Kashmir, becoming Chief Minister of J&K after Omar Abdullah completes three years in office on January 4, 2012 is too remote.
"There is no agreement on rotational chief minister-ship in place this time unlike 2002, when the PDP and the Congress formed government in the state", Azad, in fact, told reporters, thus rebuffing those in the Congress, including former Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma, who have been urging the Congress high command to revive the 2002 power-sharing formula so that the Congress is able to retain control over and expand its constituency in the state in general and Jammu province in particular. Azad expressed these disappointing views and virtually took to task the votaries of rotational chief minister-ship while responding to reporters' queries. He, in addition, said that he is unlikely to return to J&K to play his role in its political arena during the next four years.
Both these statements of Azad are very significant. These are significant for two reasons. One, he doesn't want any Congressman in the state to become its chief minister. The reason is obvious: He doesn't like the idea of any other Congressman in the state occupying the office of chief minister on the ground that such a development would weaken his own position. He doesn't want the Congress high command to create an environment in the state in which he would have no other option but to compete with his potential rival within the party itself in order to occupy the office of Chief Minister or to occupy the highest party position. He wants to remain number one in the party. The other is that he would like the NC to further erode the Congress' support-base in the state in general and Jammu province in particular so that he could tell the party high command that he alone could alone revive and lead the party and the state a right, and, hence, the party high command should put all its eggs in his basket. Azad is one man in the Congress who has always encouraged factionalism.
Why has Azad taken recourse to this kind of politics that has the potential of weakening further the already rather weak Congress in the state? It is perhaps his conviction that the next general elections in the country might see the Congress biting dust across the country and that should that happen, he should be in a position to return to the state and play politics calculated to convince the Congress high command that he alone has the capability of playing the role of a steersman and helping the Congress restore the ground the Congress leadership in the state has lost over the years to its political rivals, especially the BJP and the Panthers Party, which have turned quite aggressive and vocal and which have been working hard to identify themselves with the Jammu sentiment and the Jammu cause. It needs to be noted that the Congress and the Congress-led UPA Government are at the receiving end across the country. The people have describing the Congress-led UPA Government as a government of corruption and scams and as a government that has made the life of common people a veritable hell on earth. It has become impossible to maintain body and soul because of the price situation in the country and high inflation rate.
It was not for nothing that Azad made these statements in Jammu. He did it with a design. It would not be out of place to mention here that the JKPCC Saif-ud-Din Soz has never openly rejected the idea of rotational chief minister-ship. He has always maintained that it is for the party high command to take decision and that his only duty is to keep the party high command fully informed as to the views of the local congress leadership. All this shows that Azad has taken a line that would ultimately damage the Congress party in the state and mar its electoral prospects.
Now the question is: Why should the people of Jammu province vote for a party that opposes the rotational chief minister-ship or that denies the people of Jammu province their legitimate right to lead the state or that empowers the Kashmir-based NC to enslave the people of Jammu province; insult, abuse and taunt them; and makes invidious and humiliating distinctions between the people of Kashmir and people of Jammu in every respect? The people of Jammu province hate the Kashmiri leadership because the latter has always maltreated and despised them. They want a system that gives them co-equal powers with the people of Kashmir and that doesn't cause an affront to their self-respect.
Azad might have made these statements for short-term gains, but in the ultimate analysis, he has sacrificed the long-term interests of the Congress party. His statements would surely demoralize the Congress workers at the grassroots level and drive the people of the Jammu province away from the Congress party, which has already become an object of ridicule and a laughing stock. Besides, his statements would lower the morale of his own supporters in the state. This is not good politics. |
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