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| PDP upbeat & unrelenting, Omar says I'm clean | | Critical Moment For NC | | Rustam
jammu, Oct 3: People's Democratic Party (PDP), which, like the National Conference (NC), wants a dispensation outside the political and constitutional organisation of India, is upbeat and unrelenting. It has seen in the mysterious death of a prominent NC activist, Haji Syed Mohammad Yousuf, an opportunity to tear into the NC, score points and establish that while it is pro-people, the NC is anti-democratic, corrupt, dangerous and undependable. Yousuf died on Friday in mysterious circumstances and ever since then, the PDP has upped its ante and unleashed a no-holds-barred campaign against the Chief Minister, his father and the Minister of State for Home affairs.
The manner in which the PDP today took up the issue of death of Yousuf in the assembly and outside it does indicate that it would do everything it could to keep the pot boiling and tarnish the image of the NC leadership and the NC-led coalition government in the eyes of the people of Kashmir. The PDP is an opposition party and it is quite natural that it would exploit the death of Yousuf to the hilt to cause maximum damage to the NC, which is already at the receiving end for reasons to well-known. One of the main reasons is that the party has been focusing more on emotive and divisive issues than on issues of governance in order to neutralise the influence of the PDP which has over the period created for itself a constituency in Kashmir that does gets emotional and turns unruly when incidents like deaths in mysterious circumstances take place. Since the NC leadership has been focusing its attention on emotive and divisive issues as well as Indo-Pak relations and overlooking governance issues, it has failed to deliver and mitigate the hardship of the people.
The unrest, frustration, disaffection and lack of trust between the ruler and the ruled had already created an environment that had helped the PDP corner the state government on various issues, including the issue of governance, notwithstanding the fact that its own track record was not very inspiring when it was at the helm. However, it is the mysterious death of Yousuf that has dramatically changed the Kashmir's socio-religious and political scene with the PDP not leaving any opportunity to tear into the NC and paint it black and untrustworthy.
The bitterness and rivalry between the two Kashmir-based parties has, on the one hand, created a sort of political instability in the state and, on the other hand, created a situation that might not be in the overall interest of the country. It is difficult to predict what shape this bitterness and rivalry between the two Kashmir-based parties will ultimately take but one can surely say that the fight between the two has become personal and that the personality clashes between the leadership of these two parties would become more and more sharp and bitter with each passing day. What happened today in the assembly was just a trailer. The presiding officer calling one senior PDP leader and MLA "traitor of traitors and cheat and dishonest" and the latter hurling a fan at the former is just a trailer that points to what is likely to unfold in the coming days.
One can also surely say that it is the NC that has to defend itself and come clean because the PDP is leading the attack from the front. The task is not that simple, although Omar Abdullah today told media persons at 1.30 p.m. that he and his father and Wani are clean and that he was prepared to face any inquiry. In fact, he told reporters that he has asked the Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court to nominate a sitting judge of the High Court so that a judicial inquiry is held and people know the truth. He, however, made it quite clear that he would not take any question from reporters for reasons best known to him. As for the PDP, it rejected out-of-hand what he sought to convey through press briefing and even accepted the challenge that they would face defamation suit if the Chief Minister so likes. "Let the Chief Minister do whatever he wants and we will face," the PDP president told Times Now after Omar Abdullah's press briefing. She pooh-poohed the claim of the embittered Chief Minister saying the "Chief Justice has turned down the Chief Minister's demand because there is no FIR lodged, as also because permission of the President of India is a must which has not been sought thus far".
It needs to be underlined that the PDP has not only demanded a probe into what PDP president and Leader of Opposition in the assembly, Mehbooba Mufti, called "rot in the government, corruption within the government, corruption in the system and corruption within the Abdullah family" but also resignation of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, his father and Union Minister Farooq Abdullah and Minister of State for Home Affairs Nasir Aslam Wani, saying they are not only involved in "illegal transactions but they are also directly responsible for the death of Yousuf". In other words, the PDP has not just accused the Chief Minister and his junior of creating a situation that led to the death of Yousuf whose own credentials were quite doubtful. She has said in unequivocal terms that they were behind the murder of Yousuf and that a fair investigation is just not possible unless Omar Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah and Nasir Aslam Wani quit. She levelled a very grave charge and it was coupled with a suggestion that the PDP would not relent, come what may.
It is indeed a critical moment not only for Omar Abdullah and his father and his junior, who is very, very close to the Chief Minister, but for the party itself. It is difficult to say if the NC trouble-shooters would be able to withstand the opposition's onslaught and enable the party to hold its own in the coming days. |
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