KL Report
SRINAGAR
Ridiculing Omar Abdullah’s ‘war cry’ over India-China face off in Ladakh, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today said this was yet another attempt by the Chief Minister to provide a rhetorical cover to his “stark failures”.
In a statement senior PDP leader and former deputy Chief Minister has said while PDP believes that government of India has the ‘desired’ competence and concern to resolve the situation along the LAC ensuring that another war is not foisted on the state, the Chief Minister’s ‘brave talk’ on the issue does not match his diminishing stature as the Chief Minister.
Baig said, “It seems Omar Abdullah’s speech at Bani was actually to vent his anger generated at the failed cabinet meeting which he had presided over earlier in the day.” He said the fact that Chief Minister failed to convince his cabinet of his choice of an SP should have inspired him to look inwards and improve the functioning of coalition and administration rather than advising the central government to open a war front against China. “You can’t befool people by such sloganeering any more” Baig cautioned.
Baig has said, “The failures of Omar Abdullah government are too abvious to hide under any hyperbolic stances the chief minister may take. Chief minister behaved as a meek subordinate when the issue of Afzal Guru’s hanging faced the state as a psychological and political crisis. On that occasion the chief minister said he was not even informed about the decision to hang Afzal but now displaying clear lack of proportion he has issued a kind of a warning to the centre in an attempt to mislead his local audience.” And added, “Why didn’t the chief minister raise his voice and pitch at a time when it was relevant and needed”, Baig pointed out. Such antics, Baig said cannot be a substitute for good governance and dignified political conduct by a chief minister especially of a sensitive state like Jammu & Kashmir.
Baig has also said, “It is an irony that the chief minister breaks down in the assembly pleading helplessness when innocents are killed by his own government but he tries to act brave when strategic and security issues at the international level are involved. We want the integrity of Jammu & Kashmir to be protected but we expect the government of India to do so while avoiding another armed conflict which has in the past damaged Jammu & Kashmir the most.”
Advising the chief minister to do a reality check on his government’s performance, Baig said that Omar Abdullah has maintained a sinister silence on the scams and frauds exposed recently. “He has not uttered a word on the drug scam, PHE scandal or the repeated stinkers he is receiving from the union ministries about his government’s inefficiency on all accounts,” Baig said. He also said that the state was suffering from a cash crunch at the very beginning of the fiscal year, central government had to declare a virtual moratorium on further funds after the recent high level visit of officials under the cabinet secretary in view of bad performance, but the chief minister instead of setting his house in order is indulging in meaningless rhetoric. “It is a resounding insult for the state that the union health ministry had to investigate the drug scandal in absence of chief minister’s failure to do so”, Baig added.
