Dr. Sheikh Showkat, an expert on Kashmir affairs, agrees with Akhtar, though only partly. “Either he (Omar) intends to say that his party should be made accountable on their agenda or that they have abandoned their own manifesto and submitted to the manifesto of congress party,” says Dr. Showkat. He, however, adds that the cohesion that Omar referred to was being shown for the upcoming parliament election. “If parliament elections bring a change of guard in New Delhi, the differences would start to surface,” he says. The fact that parliament elections are nearing indicates that the coalition will continue to pursue only the development agenda for time being. However, when political agenda is pursued by either of the coalition partners, differences are bound to surface – National Conference has autonomy, and even autonomy plus, in its manifesto while Congress is at the opposite poll with unionist agenda.
