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| J&K Congress in complete disarray | | 'Ministers Bigger Than Party' | | Rustam
Jammu, Aug 22: The Congress party in Jammu and Kashmir is in complete disarray. It is divided into groups and sub-groups. In Ladakh, the Congress leadership behaves in a fashion that suits it and their region. They are one as far as their political goal is concerned. They are for the segregation of their region from Kashmir. They want UT status so that they are able to exercise all those rights which are available to all other Indians, barring the people of the State, under the Indian Constitution. They want a dispensation under which the Indian Constitution flows freely across their region. The Ladakhi Congress leadership doesn't care either for the JKPCC or for the Central leadership. It is part of the Congress and at the same time independent of it.
In Jammu Pradesh, the Congress leadership is divided into three main groups. One group is led by the JKPCC president Saif-ud-Din Soz. Even this is not a homogeneous group. Three Jammu-based Congress Ministers - Revenue Minister, Health Minister and Medical Education Minister - belong to the group led by the JKPCC president, but they seldom attend functions organized by the JKPCC. Take, for example, what happened in Jammu on August 20 (68th birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi). Insiders say that "an invitation had been sent to these Ministers well in time, but none of them thought to desirable to participate in the function organized at the party headquarters on the occasion of 68th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi". "The Congress Ministers consider themselves bigger than the party," an insider said on the condition of anonymity and added that "these Ministers have been conducting themselves in this fashion for quite sometime now" and that "they are simply exploiting the party to promote themselves and further their personal agenda at the cost of the party".
The other group is led by Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. The story of this group is no different from that of Soz. This group is vertically divided into two groups. One is led by Deputy Chief Minister and the other group, which doesn't see eye to eye with the Deputy Chief Minister, is leaderless. But it is a group. Then there is another group. In fact, there are three Ministers of State who try their best to keep Azad in good humour. One of them is a blind follower of Azad. He doesn't care at all for the JKPCC president. As for the remaining two, they not only hobnob with Azad but also with Soz. They have their own methodology. Then there is the fourth group. This group consists of certain JKPCC office-bearers who could be described as spent-bullets. They are ambitious but ineffective. They depend on the JKPCC chief who has own style of functioning; who has his own trustworthy men in the JKPCC like State general secretary and spokesperson Ravinder Sharma. Congress workers term most of the JKPCC Jammu-based office-bearers as "intriguers, self-seekers and leaders with no support-base". As for the two Lok Sabha members, one belongs to the Soz camp and the other to the Azad camp.
The story of Congress leadership in Kashmir Valley is almost identical. It is not only vertically divided into two main groups, but there are some Congress leaders, including one Cabinet Minister, who are great supporters of the NC in general and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in particular. It is this group, which sometimes also makes common cause with the JKPCC chief, which opposed tooth and nail those who wanted Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to go after he completed three years in office. Most of those who wanted some Congress leaders to take over from Omar Abdullah belonged to the Soz group. Azad also opposed the demand that Omar Abdullah be dislodged.
This is the State of affairs in the Congress party. It's no wonder then that the NC leadership is exploiting the weaknesses of the Congress party to consolidate its own position. The problem with the Congress party in the State is that there is hardly any leader who could take along everyone, expand the Congress constituency and make it a viable alternative. It's true that it won in Jammu 13 seats, but it's also true that it won by default. It won because the BJP bungled. |
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