From trying to be the messiah of the terror-stricken panchayat members in Jammu and Kashmir to earning their wrath, it took Congress scion Rahul Gandhi just less than a week. During this time, Rahul preferred personal relations over party affairs.
Earlier in the week, after the spate of killings of panchayat members in the state, a delegation had met the Congress general secretary in New Delhi. He had assured intervention and taking up the issue with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. But during Rahul’s two-day tour to the valley that began on Thursday, he not only had to face open resentment from the Congress-affiliated panchayat members but also from some leaders of the party in the state.
Analysts here saw the trouble coming on Thursday, when he along with Omar addressed a gathering in Central Kashmir’s Sonamarg. Rahul extended his hand to the chief minister like India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had extended to Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah—the chief minister’s grandfather.
Rahul told the gathering: “I want to join hands with Omar Abdullah, like Sheikh Abdullah and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru did.”
He further said: “I want to reiterate that my family belongs to Kashmir and so I am Kashmiri. As Dr Farooq Abdullah has said, his father and my father joined hands for Kashmir. I too want to join hands with Omar and the people of Kashmir.”
Omar welcomed Rahul, and said he was a ‘friend and a friend of people of Jammu and Kashmir’.
“We are facing militancy and political problem. The problem can be resolved through a process of dialogue. The dream that I and Rahul have inherited will be fulfilled,” said the CM.
According to analysts, this was a visible toning down by the Congress scion from the posture he took after meeting panchayat members from the state.
Rahul had told the members that he would take up the issue of their security with the government.
But, on the day two of his visit, the discontent was visible. Rahul had to face protest slogans at a panchayat conference here after he refused to intervene and persuade the state government to make necessary amendments in the J&K Panchayati Raj Act. The panches and sarpanches walked out of the conference as a mark of protest.
Pertinently, the state Congress spearheaded by Prof Saif-ud-din Soz has had an open war with the coalition partner National Conference over the amendments in the panchayat law. The later has, many a time, plainly put its foot down.
The conference was mostly attended by the panches and sarpanches of the Congress. Sources said panchayat members strongly demanded that the amendments be made in the state Panchayati Act at par with the 73rd amendment of Indian Constitution.
According to sources, panchayat members alleged that the polls, which Omar had described fairest in 33 years, have been reduced to a ‘meaningless exercise’. They alleged that on the one hand the panchayats were not empowered and on the other hand they were made vulnerable to violent attacks allegedly by the militants.
Sources, who were present in the conference, said: “They asked Rahul as to why he was not ready to intervene when the state Congress was battling to empower the panchayats.” But Rahul refused to intervene.
The panchayat members, sources said, were heard saying that the Congress leadership in New Delhi is not bothering about strengthening their party in Jammu and Kashmir and that they ‘prefer personal relations to party and state interests’.
Members of panchayats alleged that due to the grim situation created by the state government, hundreds of their colleagues have resigned and rest will also be forced to follow their path if Rahul failed to intervene.
Rahul, however, told the panchayat members that he was for their greater empowerment. But he did not commit to changes in the Panchayat Act that would allow this.
