KL Report
SRINAGAR
Contradicting the claim of chief minister Omar Abdullah that the execution of the parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru was one of the major reason for the debacle of the coalition during the Lok Sabha polls in the state, Jammu and Kashmir former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad stated that Guru in no way affected the coalition votes and that the main reason behind the debacle was the ‘wave’ that went against the Congress across India.
“If Guru would have been the reason for our defeat than how come we lost even in the Jammu, Kathua, Sambha, Leh Ladakh where there was no Afzal guru issue. It was the issuance of the statements by both NC and Congress against each other that shook the very foundations and became the major reason for the loss in the polls. I am very upset with the way both Congress and NC leaders in the past used to target each other through the press statements. We must put a lid over it so that further damage could be stopped.”
As the speculations galore over his re-entry into the state politics former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad remarked that he is still indecisive about it and has taken any decision in this regard so far.
Talking to KNS, Rajya Sabha member and former MP Ghulam Nabi Azad stated that he will take the decision of joining the state politics in the coming months and that he has no taken any final call on the issue yet. “I have neither discussed nor decided on this issue so far. Probably after the month of Ramadan, I will decide whether to join the state politics or not,” Azad said.
He maintained that the state Congress had very good relations with the PDP and that the coalition at that time was ‘healthy’ and ‘cordial’. He added that PDP in the end withdrew the support to get political mileage out of that. “Such things do take place in politics but I can only say that we had a good coalition. Now we have the coalition with the national conference. It is good too but the blame and credit game must come to an end. Credit must go to the government and to the ones who are at the helm of affairs.”
When asked whether the coalition will complete its full term, Azad said that only four to five months are left with the coalition government to complete its term and that if the both sides are aghast with each other they must part ways and if they feel to have the cordial relationship- the government must continue till its last day. “Either they should part way at the time when the statements against each other are being issued in the public domain or else if both the parities are comfortable in running the state of affairs, then let the coalition continue.”
Commenting over his recent statement wherein he was quoted that NC and Congress will contest the forthcoming polls separately, Azad stated that since 2002, the experiment of not forging any alliance with the parties ahead of the polls worked on ground and that all the parties went to the people with own agenda and emerged victorious. “Now both Congress and NC have decided to go for the forthcoming polls separately and let us see what happens later.”
Maintaining that that present coalition government has failed to implement his agenda of development and anti corruption measures in the state, Azad said that if merely these two programmes would have been taken into account by the NC-Congress coalition, the situation on the ground today would have been different with the poll results entirely in government’s favour. “But they (present dispensation) undermined the route that I had followed the half way. These are the two basic issues that need to be looked into by the state government.”
Commenting over the recent rout of the Congress across India, Azad stated that this is not the first time when the Congress has witnessed such a debacle and that history stands witness to the fact that at the time of Indira Gandhi, Congress suffered a huge defeat but it managed a comeback merely after two and a half years. “Winning and losing elections is natural in democracy. I have myself been the witness to all these episodes of history. I believe that Congress will manage a comeback after five years.”
Maintaining that his popularity graph in the state has reached at a very high level after his loss from Udhampur constituency during LS polls, Azad stated that as he lost the political battle but he has won over the hearts of the people more than he could during his tenure as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. “Mainstream and non- mainstream parties have expressed grief over my loss in polls- I have came to know about this from my men. I am thankful to the people of the state for that.”
He stated that RSS is running the government at New Delhi and the policies of the ruling party must be countered with a unified approach of all the secular parties of India. “We had no information that nearly 70 lakh workers of RSS were holding door to door campaign from the last two years- spitting venom against the Congress. Earlier BJP used to be the part of RSS, now it is RSS that is running the government. All the secular parties must unite for the common cause.”
