KL Report
SRINAGAR
Chairman People’s Conference Sajad Lone has expressed disdain over what he termed the “unabashed double speak” of the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah over the nature of the Kashmir Issue.
Despite a series of desperate political flip flops over the past few weeks–depicting both an immature and unstable frame of mind–the sheer audacity with which he drastically took opposing positions on the Kashmir issue whilst in Kashmir (Bandipore) regarding it to require a political settlement and subsequently proclaiming Kashmir to be an integral part of India in Jammu, reflects a sieged and deceitful mindset.
Lone however went onto declare the mindset as nothing surprising as it is part of the Abdullah legacy and political grooming. Deceit for personal power has remained a historical function of NC’s political philosophy starting from the theatrics of the green cloth and salt rock. The present leadership however has taken the theatrics a step forward by the brazen display of arrogant doublespeak and that too within the time span of only a few hours.
This reflects not only a blatant disregard for the wishes of the Kashmiri people but also an insult to their political intellect. The unflinching arrogance however stems from the assurance of New Delhi’s blessings in exchange for Kashmiri interests. Ever ready to play irrelevant and powerless pawns in New Delhi’s larger game plan for the state, both the blue eyed favorites (NC and PDP) have never displayed any reservations towards the path of personal aggrandizement at the cost of larger Kashmiri well being .
They have been the vanguards of extending Delhi’s designs in the region be it “Political dis-empowerment”, “Economic Persecution” or “Socio-cultural identity crisis”, not even stopping at becoming active collaborators in the homicide of thousands of Kashmiri’s. Delhi very early on set into place a robust system of Patronage in Kashmir wherein it conveniently lined the pockets and bestowed favors on a few favorites in the state.
“This was to be a short-cut, hassle-free and one-stop approach in advancing Delhi’s designs for the state. While in the long term it backfired and kept things on the boil in Kashmir it however proved an astute strategy in ‘managing’ the state for Delhi. In order to give the system a semblance of democratic ideal the creation of PDP – the other major recipient of Delhi’s patronage was engineered.”
Lone said that it was also vested with the additional function of ensuring fragmentation of the Kashmiri Vote and hence institutionalizing Delhi’s role via the Congress in the government formation of the state. What we see is nothing but a Delhi scripted drama of political musical chairs with both the NC and PDP cast in specific roles.
