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| Third generation of Abdullahs also helpless before corruption? | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 16: If wishes were horses the beggars would ride. Exactly in the same manner, promises are the horses on which the politicians ride. Every Independence Day politicians in power make lofty promises and exactly the same promises are repeated the next Independence Day. The reason for the repetition is simple, politicians make promises to break them.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has again made promises. Better employment avenues, zero tolerance to human rights violations, better roads, healthcare facilities, education for all, drive against corruption and every other thing imaginable.
The most interesting thing about the Chief Minister's this year's Independence Day promises was that his father, Dr. Farooq Abdullah sat with daughter and her children watching the scion of the Abdullah dynasty make the same promises in Bakshi Stadium which the elder Abdullah and the eldest Abdullah (Late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah) had also made during their rein in the state.
It is not that the memories of the politicians are short-lived, but the fact is that they know that the memories of the people are even shorter lived.
The most challenging promise made by Omar Abdullah when he took over as the Chief Minister of the state was his promise to eradicate the menace of corruption and rid the people of this yoke which is of course heavier than the yoke of slavery, the release from which India celebrates every August 15.
The Chief Minister had declared a war on corruption when he took over the reins of power here in January 2009. "There would be no compromise with corruption. Howsoever high and mighty the corrupt officials might be, I will weed them out." Perhaps Omar Abdullah still remembers those words.
With the passage of time, the Chief Minister got bogged down in the business of the state. He got entangled in the confusion of administering a difficult state. In his own words, governing Jammu and Kashmir is more difficult than any other job in the World. Omar Abdullah is not wrong when he uses those words. But, the fact that Jammu and Kashmir is a difficult state to govern does not mean the corrupt have a licence to job it as well.
The Chief Minister is now surrounded by the very bureaucrats he once vowed to weed out. A powerful nexus has been woven around the Chief Minister. These corrupt and unscrupulous bureaucrats tell the Chief Minister that any bold and risky step could rattle the seat of power in the state.
The tragedy is that unless Omar Abdullah takes that bold and risky step of catching the bull by the horn he would continue to govern at the mercy of those who are responsible for creating the larger mess Omar Abdullah is blamed for.
History has a very pertinent lesson for the scion of the state's first family. When Omar's grandfather staged a comeback into mainstream politics and subsequently took over the reins of power in the state, the late Sheikh also made a promise to his people. He said he would eradicate the menace of corruption which had plagued the state after his arrest in 1953.
To be seen as acting against the corrupt, the late Sheikh inducted Sonam Narbu, who had been the country's high commissioner in Mongolia, as one of his three cabinet ministers. Narbu had been an honest and upright gentleman. People thought induction of persons like Sonam Narbu and the fact that the Sheikh had not given representation to any riff raff in the cabinet indicated his sincerity towards his promise to rid the state of corruption. Time passed, so did water in the river Jhelum. The Sheikh was hostaged by a coterie of corrupt bureaucrats. Media reports lamented the caucus around the Sheikh. But, the legendary leader had been cocooned by his sycophants. Despite best intentions he could do nothing against corruption. Going by his own admission in his autobiography, the Sheikh died a sad man.
Today, we have the third generation of Abdullahs governing the state. Alas! the third generation appears to be as helpless before corruption as the first. |
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