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| AFSPA: One party, three voices | | NC Of Confusion | | Rustam
Jammu, Oct 30: Ruling National Conference (NC), a premier religio-political party of Kashmir, is in complete disarray. It has lost its sheen and the way. Its leadership has been behaving in a fashion that makes even the NC sympathizers and supports dismiss it as a party of confusion. Its top-ranking leaders have lost confidence and they are speaking differently even on the issue that the party made its prestige issue only the other day. The extent of the confusion among the top-ranking NC leaders, including party president Farooq Abdullah, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and party's additional general secretary and chief spokesperson Mustafa Kamal, could be measured from the fact that they have sought to create an impression that the discussion with Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on the issue of the AFSPA means more than discussion with the Congress party and that the opposition of the Congress to the Chief Minister's move on the AFSPA is unwarranted. The nature of confusion among the top NC leaders could also be determined from what Omar Abdullah, Mustafa Kamal and Finance minister and party's ideologue Abdul Rahim Rather yesterday said and opined. The case in point is their statements about the ongoing AFSPA row.
Take, for example, what the beleaguered and isolated Omar Abdullah tweeted on micro-blogging site Twitter yesterday. Pooh-poohing reports by some private news channels that the revocation of the AFSPA had been deferred, Omar tweeted: "It never came as a proposal (in the yesterday's cabinet meeting). So how can it be deferred? It was always slated to be discussed formally in Jammu once offices open".
Only Omar Abdullah could have the temerity to eat words in the manner he has been eating since October 25, when his uncle charged the Army with engineering grenade attacks across the Valley saying the Armed Forces did it to scuttle the Omar's move on the AFSPA. Omar had declared on October 21 that he would revoke the AFSPA from certain areas he considered peaceful, but he miserably failed because of the JKPCC president Prof Saif-ud-Soz's bold and very timely intervention. Omar swallowed all the humiliations and told his cabinet colleagues on October 28 that he would first evolve consensus and then propose withdrawal of the AFSPA from certain selected areas. But yesterday Omar tweeted that the AFSPA would be revoked in November. Only he knew what made him set another deadline.
As for his uncle Mustafa Kamal, who has been condemning the Congress almost everyday and virtually abusing the JKPCC president, has spoken differently on the same issue. He told a local English language daily that the "ball for the revocation of the law is now in the court of Congress, whose state president Saif-ud-Din Soz made it a personal issue and created hurdles in the revocation of law before durbar move" and that "Soz as head of the coordination committee of coalition government must immediately convene a meeting and discuss AFSPA". He, in addition, described as "unjustified the statement of senior Congress leader and PHE minister Taj Mhi-ud-Din that time is not ripe for revocation of AFSPA". "He (Taj) must justify his statement on merit. His statement will not go down well with the people, who are for the revocation of law. He made it a personal issue as to why chief minister did not made a telephone call to his residence. Why should Omar Sahab make a call to him? Soz must have himself gone to chief minister's residence…If Soz had not created hurdles the cabinet would have approved revocation of AFSPA from some areas before durbar move. Now the Chief Minister thought it better to take up the issue in next cabinet meeting so that coordination committee and others are taken on board. The ball is now in Congress court and Soz must convene the meeting. He has made the coordination committee defunct and he must reactivate it," Kamal told the said daily. Kamal, it appears, is out to destabilize the Omar Abdullah-led government for reasons best known to him. How else should one interpret what he has been saying about the Congress and Soz?
What about one more NC leader? He reportedly said yesterday that the "decision on partial revocation of the AFSPA was taken after consultation with different central security agencies operating in the state…The people of Jammu and Kashmir will receive 'good news' soon over the issue. Definitely there will be good news for the people of J&K. The issue of partial revocation of the AFSPA will be placed in the cabinet soon for discussion and thereafter a decision will be taken".
All this shows that all those who matter in the NC are acting independently of each other. Omar doesn't know what Kamal says and the vice-versa. Or, it could be a part of their strategy, which just cannot work in the circumstances they have created. Similarly, senior leader of NC doesn't know what Kamal says and the vice-versa. It's now free for all in the NC and the government and it can be said that both the NC and the government are in a very, very serious trouble. |
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