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| NC-Congress alliance, lasting another three years needs some miracle | | | Early Times Report
jammu, July 15: The "marriage of inconvenience" between the ruling National Conference (NC) and the Congress is slowly, but steadily reaching its inevitable final stage of divorce.
The bickering within the Congress, the churning of intra party equations and the fact that New Delhi is increasingly gathering an impression that the gains of peace and progress might fail because of the non-deliverance by the coalition, also indicate the two could soon reach the breaking point.
In political relations, the most binding cement is either commonality of interest or political expediency. The NC and the Congress did not come close to each other after the 2008 assembly elections because the two had any ideological affinity for each other. Had there ever been an ideological affinity between the two, then the Congress would not have allied with the PDP after 2002 elections.
The only thing common between the two parties after the 2008 assembly elections was that both wanted to get into the driving seat somehow.
The Congress could not have allied with its old friend the PDP because the PDP had ditched Ghulam Nabi Azad during the Amarnath Land Row agitation. The PDP senior leadership had spoken the language of the separatists during the land row agitation and the Congress could only align with it after the 2008 assembly elections to its total detriment in the Jammu region and at the national level.
The BJP was fast entrenching itself in the state. From just a lone seat in the 2002 assembly elections, the BJP had improved its statistics to 11 seats during the 2008 elections. The Congress had dropped from 21 in 2002 to 17 in 2008. The BJP was fast closing on the Congress which once believed whatever might happen to the state politics, the BJP could never make a headway in J&K.
In the past, the NC had aligned with the NDA at the centre and Omar Abdullah had served as a state minister in the NDA regime. The working up of the alliance between the NC and the Congress was a bitter pill, but the same had to be swallowed if power was to remain with the Congress and the NC in the state.
The personal relationship between Rahul Gandhi and Omar Abdullah came handy for the two parties and before the state Congress could even disclose its mind on any future alliance, the Congress high command issued the directive. Omar Abdullah would head the NC-Congress alliance in the state.
Some of the Congress leaders were left red faced especially because they had not been mentally prepared to accept the new alliance as ordered by their high command. But, since decisions in the Congress are always taken by the high command and the state cadres have little option, but to accept them, the Congress in J&K accepted the command and humbly allied with the NC.
The road ahead after the alliance was cobbled up has been both bumpy and thorny. The Congress ministers have been defiant of the NC whom they continue to accuse of furthering party interests by sacrificing the interests of their alliance partner. Many secret meetings have also been held by the Congress ministers in the state to work out a strategy to convince the high command that the alliance with the NC has been costing the Congress very dearly.
One recent example of the mistrust between the two ruling partners is the misgivings expressed by the Congress leaders over the decision of the chief minister to interact directly with the Congress workers.
The die appears to have been cast; the only thing that needs to be watched now is when the thread will snap. Political Pandits believe the continuation of the partnership between the NC and the Congress for another three and a half years would only be a political miracle which has so far never happened in J&K. |
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