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| Chidambaram's fall would be Omar's loss | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 18: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who has developed the habit of landing himself into trouble again and again, has in the person of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram one of his greater supporters. It was Chidambaram who came to his rescue umpteen times in the recent past. Chidambaram openly sided with Omar when the latter asserted on the floor of the assembly on October 7, 2010 that the state had only acceded and not merged with India. Again, it was Chidambaram who came to his rescue last month, when everyone whom Omar met with in New Delhi rejected out-of-hand his demand seeking revocation of AFSPA from certain districts of the state. Chidambaram had said that Omar committed no wrong by suggesting revocation of AFSPA and that whatever he did he did as per the September 25, 2010 Cabinet Committee on Security's 8-point scheme worked out to restore peace in the Valley.
Similarly, when JKPCC president Saif-ud-Din Soz took on Omar Abdullah and accused him of making statement on AFSPA without discussing the matter with him as well as in the State Cabinet, the Chief Minister had ridiculed the JKPCC chief and publicly said that there was no need for him to discuss with him the issue, as he had kept Chidambaram in the loop. Chidambaram endorsed the Omar's stand but also suggested that the NC should discuss the matter with the state Congress leaders to bring them on board. He didn't say that AFSPA should not be scraped.
The fact of the matter is that Chidambaram consistently endorsed the Omar's line and much to the chagrin of all others in the state who never shared the Omar's views on AFSPA, Army, Jammu & Kashmir and on the kind of political dispensation he had been striving to achieve for the state. He wants autonomous status for the state.
There are very many people in the state, particularly in Jammu province and Ladakh, who hold Chidambaram squarely responsible for further complicating the situation in Kashmir Valley and giving a cause to the Kashmiri separatists to question the very Indian presence in the state. They still feel dumb-founded and alarmed when reminded of what Chidambaram had said in Kashmir in October 2009. Chidambaram had said: "Kashmir has a unique history and unique geography. Kashmir is a unique problem that needs a unique solution". Omar Abdullah has on umpteen occasions used the Chidambaram's formulation on Kashmir to counter those who believe, and rightly, that Jammu & Kashmir is a settled issue and the accession of the state to India irrevocable and non-negotiable.
Omar Abdullah must be feeling very perturbed these days. Not because of the developments which have been unfolding in the state, including the PDP's relentless campaign against his government and the Abdullah dynasty and the consistently widening gulf between the NC and the local Congress leadership but because of the very serious trouble Chidambaram is in these days. Everyone, barring the Congress ministers and the Congress high command, is after the Home Minister's blood. Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh and Congress national spokesperson Rashid Alvi have virtually abandoned him. Media persons wanted them to react to the startling revelation that Chidambaram as Union Home Minister manipulated things to help his old client against whom three charge-sheets had been filed in the court. The latest revelation has further made the position of the Home Minister highly untenable. In fact, the BJP and others are demanding his resignation saying he was involved in the multi-crore 2G spectrum scam. They have been boycotting Chidambaram in the Parliament. They also made the Parliament dysfunctional on Thursday and Friday and they have declared that they would not allow Chidambaram and Parliament to function till the Home Minister is not removed.
As if all this was not enough to isolate the Home Minister, another controversy has gripped him. The issue is corruption in the Common Wealth Games. A letter obtained by an RTI activist suggests that he as Finance Minister didn't take necessary steps to check corruption in the office charged with the responsibility of organizing games.
The situation as it prevails today in New Delhi does suggest that Chidambaram is in deep trouble and that the circumstances fight force him to quit or force the Prime Minister to ask him to resign. In case it happens, the biggest loser would be Omar Abdullah. In other words, fall of Chidambaram would be the loss of Omar Abdullah. As for the people of the state, particularly those belong to Jammu province and Ladakh, would certainly heave a sigh of relief for reasons not difficult to understand. Let's see what happens in the next few days. The period from December 19 to 22 and January 7 would be very crucial for Chidambaram. December 7 would be crucial because that day the trial court would decide the fate of the Union Home Minister after listening to Janata Party president Subramanian Swami for the last time. Swami says that Chidambaram, like former Telecom Minister, is involved in the spectrum distribution and pricing scam. |
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