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| NC director, Cong & BJP actors, says Mehbooba; NPP demands dissolution of assembly | | Bill On Guru: NC-Cong Exposed -- I | | Rustam
JAMMU, Sept 28: It is good that the private member's bill seeking clemency for the parliament attack convict Afzal Guru collapsed even before it was placed on the floor of the assembly for discussion and decision. However, one has to keep his/her fingers crossed because it would be suicidal to take the collapse of this highly controversial and divisive bill as a final victory. The Kashmiri leadership could play a mischief anytime. This is a strong comment but, then, the bulk of Kashmiri leadership has always acted in a fashion that has created serious doubts in the minds of the general public about their intentions.
Anyway, today's story in Early Times "Assembly to discuss bill on Guru" had hinted at the possibility of the creation of an environment in the assembly which might defeat the bill on Guru seeking mercy for him even before it was presented for discussion and decision. The story had also hinted that behind-the-scene activities could lead to the rise of a situation under which discussion on the controversial and highly emotive bill would become impossible. It has actually happened. A drama of sorts was enacted today by the ruling coalition to save the chair overlooking their long-term interests for short-term gain. There are also some reports to the effect that the Union Home Ministry and intelligence agencies also played their role to sabotage the bill. If true, they must be appreciated by one and all and all the more because their role in the past was quite questionable.
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti appeared reasonably correct when she lambasted the ruling coalition consisting of NC and the Congress as well as the BJP, notwithstanding the fact that her own party had given the issue a highly emotive twist, obviously, for vote-bank politics, as also notwithstanding the fact that her attack on Indian democracy was flawed and misplaced. She dismissed with contempt the NC as "director" and termed the Congress and the BJP as "actors" and did what she could to expose all the three and lower the position of the NC in the eyes of the people of Kashmir. There is no doubt whatever that the PDP would make the drama as enacted today by the ruling coalition on the floor of the assembly to retain control over the state power and enjoy the loaves and fishes of office the cornerstone of its speeches all across the Valley and further erode the already fast-eroding support-base of the NC in Kashmir.
The NC, which had given broad hints that it would support the bill, could have turned the tables on the PDP, its only political rival in the Kashmir Valley, but it squandered the opportunity by playing a particular role in and outside the assembly that created an impression in the state in general and Kashmir Valley in particular that the NC is interested more in power than what it wants its Kashmir constituency to believe in. Mehbooba calls it "double language". The NC preferred power. When the assembly secretariat accepted the private member's bill, the NC leadership had something different in mind: It took it as a god-sent opportunity to arouse popular passions in Kashmir to neutralize the influence of the PDP, exploit the same at some later date and consolidate its hold over the Kashmir constituency, core constituency of this oldest party in Kashmir. But the lust of power ultimately changed the mind of the NC leadership and it has happened at least four times in the past. Its decline in the Valley needs to be viewed in this context.
That the NC would play a double game to hoodwink the gullible Kashmiri Muslims had become evident last evening when reports emanated from Kashmir that the NC president had, instead of asking the NC MLAs to vote for the bill, asked them to vote according to their conscience. The fact that those who control and run the NC didn't give direction to their MLAs to vote for the bill could be legitimately construed as a proof that they had changed their mind at the last minute convinced that vote for the bill might result in the collapse of the NC-led coalition government and make the position of the Minister of Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah untenable. Neither Farooq nor Omar can, it appears, live without power. That the NC might not allow discussion on the bill on Guru had, in fact, clear in the afternoon itself, when it became public that the timing of the assembly had been reduced by "two hours" and that "five call attention motions and two resolutions would be taken up ahead of the clemency bill on Guru. This means the strategy was in place well before the D-day.
The truth, in short, is that the NC has lost its face and become an object of ridicule and contempt in Kashmir. As for Jammu and Ladakh, a vast majority of people of these two regions has already abandoned it, saying that it just cannot be trusted and that it has harmed them to the extent possible. (To be continued) |
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