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| Omar's friend Rahul not for revival of Congress | | Rotational Chief Minister | | Neha
JAMMU, Sept 27: Sonia Gandhi's son and AICC general secretary and the "prime minister-in-waiting" Rahul Gandhi did not surprise anyone in Kashmir when he reportedly didn't share the view of the youth Congress leadership and panches and sarpanches that the NC-led coalition government in the state "is not in the interest of the Congress party" and that a "Congress candidate should be made chief minister for next three years". All this happened yesterday at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC), Srinagar. Rahul's only response, according to media reports, was that "he has no final say in the Jammu and Kashmir affairs and the party decision is supreme".
This was not the first time that certain elements in the Congress criticized the existing power-sharing formula and demanded rotational chief minister. There are elements who have been expressing identical views ever since Omar Abdullah became Chief minister, of course, with the blessings of the Congress high command. Congress high command means Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. However, it was former deputy chief minister and Congress veteran Mangat Ram Sharma who was the first to raise the banner of revolt last year and demanded that Omar Abdullah must be shown the doors after he completed three years in office, saying if the Congress was to remain relevant in the state, a Congressman had to lead the state during the remaining term of three years. He took this stand in the presence of the JKPCC chief. Another Jammu Congress leader and health minister Sham Lal Sharma had not only aired such views, but also demanded division of the state and he got support from his brother Madan Lal Sharma, MP, and former cabinet minister in the Mufti-led coalition government.
Significantly, even Karan Singh took the same line this summer in Srinagar when he expressed his solidarity with those in Kashmir demanding rotational chief minister. Singh had not only supported the demand and assured them that he would take up this issue with the Congress high command but also went to the extent of saying that the Congress would suffer huge political losses if the present incumbent was not replaced by a Congressman after he completed three years in office. Another senior Congress leader and former union minister Makhan Lal Fotedar had expressed almost similar views and even snubbed and ridiculed Omar Abdullah saying he didn't know anything about the political history of the state, including the circumstances leading to its accession with India. All this happened almost simultaneously and this had created a furore in the NC circles, with the NC leaders, particularly Mustafa Kamal, leveling serious charges against the Congress, Fotedar and others. Such was the situation that Farooq had to intervene.
The fact is that the bulk of Congress leaders and workers in the state are for rotational chief minister and they are of the view that the Congress would be decimated in the state if the existing power-sharing formula was not changed to put the Congress in the driver's seat, but without evoking any response whatever from the Congress high command. Nor would they evoke any response in the foreseeable future because the Congress high command in the past (read Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi) had also acted in the manner the present Congress high command has been acting since 2002, when Sonia Gandhi handed over the state power to the PDP on a platter in the name of what she called national interest despite the fact that the Congress had won more seats.
Nehru had, instead of taking steps to establish the J&K unit of the Congress party, had conspired against Jammu and handed over the state power to Sheikh Abdullah of the NC. Indira Gandhi did the same in 1975. In fact, she went a step further: She dislodged her own party's government in the state and asked the Congress party to abdicate power in favour of the Sheikh, who had no following at that point of time. Rajiv Gandhi also acted likewise. He entered into a power-sharing agreement with Farooq Abdullah in 1986-1987.
And, as for Sonia and Rahul, they are simply treading the path Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi and Indira's son Rajiv Gandhi charted years ago for the Congress. The present high command is not going to oblige the local Congress leadership. For, it, like Nehru, Indira and Rajiv, believes that the only role of the Congress party in the state is to dance to the tunes of the non-Congress Kashmiri leaders or play the role of second-fiddle or act as the B-team. The local Congress leadership is itself responsible for the prevailing state of affairs. It has never asserted. Rather, some ambitious elements within the Congress have always sabotaged all such efforts directed towards changing the Congress high command's mindset. It's true even today. In fact, the situation is worse today. There is consensus that it is Rahul who is giving Omar his fullest possible support. The Congress has, it appears, no future in the state. |
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