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Controversies kept Omar on tenterhooks in 2011
State Of Uncertainty
12/31/2011 11:12:57 PM
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 31: 2011, like 2010, was not a good year for Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. During these 12 months, he courted controversy after controversy. His statements and actions demonstrated his unwillingness to recognize the fact that he was not engaged in one party rule. His political conduct angered the Congress leadership in the state in general and JKPCC president Saif-ud-Din in particular. What happened in the wake of the Chief Minister's October 21 Srinagar statement on AFSPA is too well-known. Suffice it to say that the Chief Minister's statement provoked the JKPCC to the extent that the latter publicly disapproved of it and candidly told the former that he violated coalition dharma by making a statement on a very sensitive issue without taking the Congress into confidence.
Likewise, it would be enough to say that the Chief Minister, instead of accepting his mistake, publicly took on the JKPCC chief and said there was no need for him to take him on board as he had already taken Home Minister P Chidambaram into confidence. While taking on the JKPCC chief, he conveniently forgot that the former was the chairman of the Congress-NC coordination committee. The JKPCC scored a victory over the Chief Minister, thus making the latter an object of ridicule. The relations between the two continue to be very bitter, something that doesn't augur well for Omar Abdullah in the sense that almost all the supporters of the Congress president are for the Chief Minister's removal from office before January 5.
It needs to be underlined that the issues of AFSPA and rotational chief minister - apart from causing estrangement between the NC and the Congress - led to the unceremonious fall of Mustafa Kamaal, the Chief Minister's uncle. Kamaal has openly and unambiguously accused Omar Abdullah of conspiring against him. Kamaal Mustafa will surely strike. He must be waiting for an opportune moment. Kamaal is a hot-headed person. His views are also of extreme nature. He is a bitter critic of the Congress, New Delhi and the Army and an ardent believer in the concept of greater autonomy.
It is important to note that the Chief Minister's stand on AFSPA was not supported by the Indian political establishment and the Army. He should have yielded, but he didn't and the result was humiliation of an extreme form. He realized his mistake when he realized that he was seeking to achieve the unachievable. In the process he provided an issue to the PDP on a platter. The PDP unleashed a no-holds-barred campaign against him to tarnish his image by giving the people of Kashmir to understand that he was not really committed to the revocation of AFSPA and that he compromised his ideology for the sake of power. After suffering humiliation, the Chief Minister thought of amending the Ranbir Penal Code to bring it at par with the Indian Criminal Procedure Code to give legal immunity to the Armed forces involved in counter-insurgency operations. He made this suggestion in public. It was a great U-turn. He thought of addressing the concerns of the same Army whose authority and stand on AFSPA he had challenged on November 10.
The Chief Minister should have stuck to the stand on the Ranbir Penal Code, but again he yielded. He yielded because the Kashmiri separatists and the PDP leadership rejected his suggestion out-of-hand. The roundly condemned Chief Minister then stated that what he said on the Ranbir Penal Code was just a suggestion and that he had not initiated any action on his suggestion. The Army further added to his woes by expressing themselves against his suggestion regarding Amendment in the Ranbir Penal Code. He took U-turn after U-turn but failed to conciliate the constituency he wanted to conciliate. The constituency has been now occupied the shrewd PDP leadership.
The Chief Minister not only went back on his public announcements on AFSPA and Ranbir Penal Code, but he also courted two other very serious controversies. One was over the death of a loyalist of Abdullah family Haji Mohammad Yousuf in mysterious circumstance. The death of Yousuf created a volcanic situation in the Valley, with the PDP and the relatives of the deceased Yousuf charging the Chief Minister and his father with indulging in political corruption and causing death of Yousuf. The PDP demanded his resignation as well as resignation of his father. The PDP also demanded CBI inquiry in the matter, saying the people had lost faith in the Abdullahs. The Panthers Party went to the Supreme Court for the same purpose and the case is still pending with the highest court of the country. The Supreme Court can take any view on the death of Yousuf. The other was over Afzal Guru, who stands convicted in the December 13, 2001 Parliament terrorist attack case. He had tweeted that had his government passed a resolution seeking mercy for Guru, there would have been a furore in the country.
Omar Abdullah courted one more controversy when he ensured the collapse of the Revenue Department's order on the issuance of Dogra certificate to those in Jammu province who were desirous of joining the paramilitary forces. The withdrawal of the order under pressure from Kashmiri separatists, the PDP leadership, the Kashmir High Court Bar Association and the Kashmir-based press not only embittered the already bitter relations between Jammu and Kashmir but also sent a message across the country that it was the writ of the extremists, and not of Omar Abdullah, that ran in the state. The Dogra of Jammu province, including Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, have still not reconciled to what Omar Abdullah did. They continue to chaff and denounce the Kashmiri leaders, particularly Omar Abdullah and his coterie.
The fact of the matter is that the Chief Minister himself invited troubles, some of them very serious. The latest being the decision of his government that seeks to discard the age old practice of registration of documents by courts and the transfer of registration powers to the Revenue Department - decision that paralyzed the working of the courts across the state for 30 days and forced the people of Jammu province to observe a complete and peaceful bandh on December 20 - bandh that saw the people of Jammu denouncing the Congress ministers using very strong language.
The Chief Minister and the members of his coterie may say that all was very fine during the past 12 months, but the ground reality is different. The ground reality was that the Chief Minister remained in tenterhooks. This will happen in 2012 unless he functioned as a reformed leader. But the question is: Will the Congress allow him to remain in office beyond January 4, the day he would complete three years in office.
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