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| Outcome of Nov 17 cabinet meeting will determine Congress' fate | | AFSPA Row | | Rustam
JAMMU, Nov 14: The J&K state cabinet is scheduled to meet on November 17. Reports suggest the cabinet would discuss the revocation of AFSPA from certain areas in the state. The beleaguered chief minister would, as per some trustworthy sources, try to bring the Congress ministers on board during the meeting. The chief minister wants New Delhi to believe that the ruling coalition is one as far as revocation of AFSPA from certain districts in the state is concerned and that both the NC and the Congress are working in unison.
One can understand the compulsions of the chief minister who has landed himself in a very difficult situation by mishandling the sensitive issue and openly challenging the Army. He wants to tell his constituency in Kashmir that he is in full command and that it is he whose writ alone runs in the state. His fundamental objective is to divert the people's attention away from the issues which have led the people and the opposition parties to believe that he has failed as an administrator and that his government is not only involved in corruption from head to toe but also in "political corruption". He has come to believe that there is but one way in which he can deflect the people's attention away from the real issues and that is by targeting the Army or by politicizing the institution of the Army. His insistence on the AFSPA revocation needs to be viewed in this context. His whole move is politically and communally-motivated and his whole objective to retain control over the Kashmir constituency by pursing a line that has the potential of jeopardizing national security. It is hardly necessary to reflect on the Army's viewpoint, as everyone knows that the Army is bitterly opposed to the idea of the AFSPA being withdrawn even from a few areas in the state. Its opposition is based on the ground situation in the state.
It is in this backdrop that the state cabinet would meet on November 17. It would be a very crucial meeting as far as the Congress is concerned. The Congress represents a constituency in the state which shares the views of the Army or which is vehemently opposed to the chief minister's controversial, nay highly dangerous, scheme of things. The otherwise isolated and under-the-dock chief minister would gain tremendously if he succeeds in his game-plan. In other words, the support of the Congress ministers for his stand on the AFSPA would enable him to tell the separatist constituency in the Kashmir Valley that it is who has finally succeeded in weakening the Army in the state and promoting the agenda that the separatists have been striving to implement to achieve the larger goal: separation from India. The separatists have said the revocation of the AFSPA would enable them to achieve independence from India.
Can the Congress afford to make common cause with the controversial chief minister? It just cannot. For, its support to the chief minister on the issue of the AFSPA would automatically mean its own political demise in the state in general and Jammu and Ladakh in particular. Hence, the Congress ministers have no other option but to live up to the expectations of the people they and their party represent. In other words, they have been left with no other alternative but to oppose the chief minister's move tooth and nail at whatever cost. Why should they join the chief minister's anti-Army crusade sacrificing their own long-term interests and interests of the nation as a whole? It will be interesting to watch what they ultimately do on the D-day. |
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