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| Omar's crusade against AFSPA: Gains & Losses | | | Rustam
JAMMU, Nov 17: Ever since his appointment as Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah had been seeking withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from the state. However, it was on October 21 that he gave a radical orientation to his crusade against the AFSPA. He declared that he would withdraw the law from certain select areas before Durbar move. It then appeared that he had taken all the stakeholders, including the Army, on board. It was a wrong assessment. He had not taken anyone into confidence, not even his coalition partner. The November 9 meeting of the Unified Headquarters (UHQ) cleared all the cobweb of confusion and established that Omar Abdullah had not taken anybody into confidence before going public and setting the deadline. It became clear that he had overstepped his authority in his desperate bid to deflect the people's attention away from certain critical issues, including the death of Syed Mohammad Yousuf in mysterious circumstances after he was handed over to the CID by the Chief Minister at his official residence.
In between, the state witnessed a war of very strong words between the Chief Minister and Congress leaders, including JKPCC president Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz, as also between the Chief Minister's uncle and party general secretary and chief spokesperson Mustafa Kamaal and the Congress leaders. The issue was the same. It is hardly necessary to reflect on the nature of bitterness between the coalition partners, as everything is in public domain. Suffice it to say that the spat between the NC and the Congress led to the fall of Kamaal. He was shown the door at the behest of the AICC.
It was hoped that the outcome of the UHQ meeting would make the Chief Minister sit down, retrospect and redesign his approach towards the AFSPA taking into account the Army's vehement opposition to his move. But it did not happen. What happened was to the contrary. He put at stake everything and went to New Delhi to enlist the support of the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, the Finance Minister, the home Minister, the AICC president and UPA chairperson and the Army chief. He took this step overlooking the unambiguous statements of the Prime Minister, Defence Minister, Home Minister and Army chief on the issue. Each one of them had expressed himself against the Chief Minister's game-plan in his own way. They had in one sense candidly told the Chief Minister to abandon the dangerous path he had started treading since October 21, but with no result. He went to Delhi and met with whom he wanted to meet and returned to Jammu empty-handed and as a broken-hearted person. The Defence Minister even indirectly taunted him and dismissed him as an immature Chief Minister who could not differentiate between sensitive issues and routine matters. How else should one interpret his statement that the issue of revocation of AFSPA needed to be handled in a mature manner? He made this statement after his meeting with the Chief Minister.
All this shows that the Chief Minister's ill-conceived and politically-motivated crusade against the AFSPA has backfired. In other words, he has not gained anything at all. He has only suffered losses. He has simply lost everything. (To be continued) |
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