Priyanka
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Srinagar: The two contenders fought together, but now the Congress and National Conference hold conflicting views after the oath taking ceremony of the Omar Abdullah’s government in the Jammu and Kashmir UT in October last year.
As for the current head of the J&K Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC), Mr. Tariq Hameed Karra vaguely blames the UT administration for its inability to address the issues of the populace, while its former president, Mr. Vikar Rasool, demarked it as the “most.failed government” of all times in Jammu and Kashmir.
While he has been careful about his remarks against the NC led government, through his advocacy of the restoration of statehood, many of his contemporaries would argue that the Congress leader is trying to shoot the Omar Abdullah head government, and loudly missing the mark.
With regards the absence of rules pertaining to businesses and procrastination with restoration of statehood, Karra, speaking recently at the PCC office premises in Srinagar pointed out, “there is an increasing sense of distrust,” cynicism has set in among the masses and they are increasingly losing faith in the governments elected through the ballot box. “As an alliance partner of NC, I will pray, it has been able to lose the bottle and address the grievances and administer the locality adequately,” he said.
Karra argued that the lack of parameters in business activity has caused chaos amongst the officers with regard to their allegiance to either the elected government or the L-G administration. “In such situations, it is the common people who suffer the most as they are losing faith in democracy. They thought that their vote will make a difference in the resolution of their issues, but at the end, people feel that their vote was futile,” he stated.
Other PCC members include Vikar Rasool, and he has served as the President of the former Pradesh Congress Committee as well. He was formerly a member of the Congress Working Committee, and he has referred to the Omar led government as the “most ineffective administration that Jammu and Kashmir has encountered in its entire history.”
On the completion of the elected government’s first 100 days, Vikar mercilessly targeted the chief minister along with cabinet members as well. “NC was given a decisive mandate, and the people of Jammu and Kashmir are expected to be dismayed, considering the plethora of unresolved issues that have surfaced. Not to mention, the amped up electricity situation is more than the Mahajan family can handle, and there is absolutely no assistance provided in regard to the continuously increasing power bills. Furthermore, the daily wage earners have still not received word about regularization,” he lamented, adding that apart from adjusting the academic year, the Omar government has not done anything of substance.
“More than anything, Omar Abdullah knew that statehood was a current necessity if he wished to do even lower activities such as modifying the position of his peon. Why then does he so vigorously contest to be a Chief Minister of a UT?” he asked. “NC is now blaming the dual control saying that their work is being hindered by the LG. In this blame game, the common man suffers.”
When expressing his view surrounding the abrasive attack Vikar has unleashed on NC, he completely avoided the topic when approached by ETV Bharat. While the top brass of National Conference and Congress try to smoothen the stay of the two parties, some political commentators believe that this coalition is obsolete, or in simple language, ‘doesn’t exist.’
Ravinder Sharma, the Chief Spokesperson of Congress claims that the statements made by PCC's former and incumbent presidents should not see the light of day as their party is attempting to regain lost votes which is inherently beneficial to them.
According to Sharma, Congress, as an alliance partner, fully supports the success of the Omar Abdullah government and works hard towards it. But the BJP government obstructs them by not granting statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
“The comments from Congress leadership must not be seen as directed against the National Conference government, but rather towards the BJP government. By refusing to grant statehood, the BJP at the centre is obstructing the elected government. All our statements are about the deferring of statehood and the imposition of the business rule,” Sharma said to ETV Bharat.
While speaking to ETV Bharat, National Conference president for Kashmir Province, Showkat Mir, said the Congress leaders are not criticizing the NC-led government but the ‘doctrine of control’ as well as the apathetic attitude towards the granting of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. “I think both the parties have their own agendas and policies, but so far as statehood and other burning issues are concerned, Congress and National Conference are together,” Mir said to ETV Bharat.
The NC currently has 42 legislators in the assembly, and with the backing of five independent legislators and the lone CPIM MLA Yousuf Tarigami, NC’s numbers rise in the assembly above the majority mark of 44. However, Congress, with their paltry six MLAs, has not much to bargain in the nine-member cabinet but is most likely to be offered one cabinet seat by NC. Being the more powerful party position wise, unfortunately for the Congress, they are not willing to accept the position because of the infighting between party elder’s Mir Ghulam Ahmad, former president and CWC member, and more powerful leader Karra.
“That is what actually matters. Zafar Choudhary, author and a senior journalist, explained that the NC does not give any importance to Congress, and so, NC does not consider Congress having significant number people (of legislators) in the assembly).”
Choudhary told ETV Bharat that, “Without the Congress, NC still has numbers. Therefore, it is as if there is no alliance to speak about. In the coalition governments that preceded this one, there would be clashes amongst the partner states over the distribution of control and cabinet appointments. The current ruling coalition is so weak that there is no movement for power so there are no disputes.”
He explained that two prominent figures in Kashmir, Tariq Karra and Ghulam Ahmad Mir, would want to be in the cabinet but the NC has conceded only to one reserved seat for the party.
“This has caused a huge problem in the Congress party internal; particularly between Mir and Karra since the party could arrive at no consensus on the issue,” he said.
