National Conference President Farooq Abdullah, a three time former Chief Minister of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state and Party Vice President Omar Abdullah another former Chief of the erstwhile state going into quarantine after coming across a COVID-19 positive patient has generated a debate among public that whether their quarantine was a coincidence or an intentional back out on campaigning for PAGD (Peoples’ Alliance For Gupkar Declaration) candidates in the ongoing DDC elections. While both Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah even before the announcement of DDC elections did not try to reach out to the people at the grass roots even once after their release from several months of detention in March this year, the leaders of other constituent parties of PAGD (Peoples’ Alliance For Gupkar Declaration) including PDP President and former Chief Minister of erstwhile state Mehbooba Mufti and Peoples Conference Chairman and a former Minister dared to move out to reach out to the people in their strongholds in South and North Kashmir respectively. While Farooq Abdullah as head of PAGD(Peoples’ Alliance For Gupkar Declaration ) should have led the campaigning against BJP from the front, his juniors including the likes of Mehbooba Mufti, Sajad Lone , M Y Tarigami and Muzaffar Shah overtake him in campaigning against BJP in Kashmir. Yet another undeniable fact is while several PDP leaders were taken into preventive detention for trying to take out a protest march against the enforcement of controversial land laws, the National Conference leaders including the likes of Ab Rahim Rather and Ali Mohammad Sagar did not dare to take out even a single protest march against the enforcement of either controversial land laws or scrapping of the Roshni Act. Notably the Abdullahs’ did not bother to challenge the withdrawal of controversiaL Roshni Act even after top retired bureaucrat Mohd Shafi Pandit and CPI(M) Secretary M Y Tarigami challenged the scrapping of the Act in the supreme court of the country. While the top muslim leaders of the BJP Shahnawaz Hussain, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and others are busy in aggressive campaigning for the DDC candidates of the saffron party in several poll bound areas of Kashmir valley, the National Conference leaders including Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah have almost gone into hiding leaving the job of poll campaigning of PAGD (Peoples’ Alliance For Gupkar Declaration) to Mehbooba Mufti in South Kashmir and Sajad Lone in North Kashmir. Don’t forget the top Union Ministers including Simriti Irani, Ravi Shankar Prasad and their other contemporaries too have been campaigning for BJP candidates both in Kashmir valley and Jammu region. On the contrary Ab Rahim Rather the third tallest leader of National Conference after Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah is yet make his maiden public appearance after last year’s August 5 moves of the central government on Jammu & Kashmir. Question can be asked that if the likes of Farooq Abdullah can’t campaign against BJP’s Shahnawaz Hussain , Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi,Simriti Irani , Ravi Shankar Prasad and others, how come people can expect them to fight against the BJP’s tallest leaders including the likes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Reducing the campaign against BJP over both the restoration of August 4,2019 position of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state and as wells as campaigning for DDC candidates of PAGD (Peoples’ Alliance For Guppkar Declaration) to normal press statements and close doors meetings with the workers at the highly fortified party’s Nawa-e-Subh headquarters in the heart of Srinagar has generated an impression that both Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah have choosen to go into hiding just to bail out BJP in DDC elections as they did not campaign when they had to campaign aggressively against BJP candidates in the ongoing DDC elections for demonstrating seriousness over their anti-BJP tirade. Accusing the likes of Altaf Bukhari of hobnobbing with the BJP and themselves bailing out BJP by staying away from the campaign for PAGD candidates only shows the contradiction in the words and deeds of Abdullahs’. By the dint of their actions the Abdullahs’ are almost bailing out BJP in DDC elections. No other option than to lead the campaigning for PAGD candidates from the front in the remaining phases of DDC elections is left for Farooq Abdullah , Omar Abdullah and other National Conference leaders as otherwise they cease the moral right to commit themselves to fight for restoration of August 4, 2019 position of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state.
(Kashmir Horizon)
