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| Omar's myriad challenges: Primary is to galvanize dampened spirits of Team NC | | All is not well in NC camp; morale of its cadres at all-time low | | Bharat Bhushan
JAMMU, Sept 30: The Valley is gradually coming out of the shock and the devastation it underwent in the nearly week-long rains and floods and the things are gradually settling down there but Chief Minister Omar Abdullah faces myriad challenges ahead. Actually, the problems for him are going to begin now. The biggest perhaps is likely to come from the J&K people who feel that the Government left them at a time when they needed it to stay and help them. As of now people are not in a mood to pardon him as all of them feel that had he as a Chief Minister volunteered to come forward to know about their whereabouts, his subordinates would have surely followed him. In his absence from the scene, the Government became non-existent. People now feel that he, as a Chief Public Servant of the state, lacked maturity to deal with the crisis. There has been widespread criticism of the Omar-led Government for its complete failure to deal with the deluge which, in turn, has led to the dampening of Team NC's spirits. The morale of its cadres is at all-time low now.
Many pitfalls seem to have come the NC way now. Given the public anger, the Government's inaction is going to cost it dearly in the upcoming state polls. The inaction is more likely to prove as a "silly" act on their part. Silly, because they chose to be villains when they could have actually become heroes. They had no reason to stay away from the flooded Srinagar localities except for caring for their own lives. But while doing so, they did not realise even for a second that thousands of people were expecting their elected representatives to arrange some sort of help for them. But they remained unconcerned which led the masses to believe that the Government lacked interest in feeling the grief behind their cries at a time when the flood waters inundated their houses, in many cases up to the level of two storeys or so, and the fear of meeting watery graves haunted them all the time. The Government's inertness has led to the creation of an unfriendly environment for it, turning many J&K hearts against it.
But why to blame Omar alone for his Government's unresponsiveness and administrative failure when NC stalwarts like A R Rather and Ali Mohammad Sagar too failed to anticipate things. Even Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand and other Congress Ministers failed to make their presence felt when the Valley faced the worst ever natural calamity after the heavy September 6 rains that triggered floods, inundating several Srinagar localities and creating havoc in Jammu region.
Now the biggest challenge before NC and Congress is how to face the public. The general feeling is that the people, who survived the Kashmir deluge, and those, who suffered heavy losses in rains and floods in Jammu region, are now waiting for their turn to teach the elected representatives a lesson. They are unlikely to forgive all those who failed to discharge their moral duty at a time when they needed them most.
For the first five days of the deluge, neither Omar nor his Cabinet colleagues, including those of Congress, were visible. It seemed as if the floods had "gobbled up" the Government too. It failed totally to reach out to the people in distress.
Agreed that the Governments nowhere have men and machinery to deal with the crisis of such a high magnitude. But the people's grievance is that no Government representative showed up when they were in trouble. They, however, thanked Army and other central forces for saving their lives.
The other big challenge the Government faces now is of rehabilitation of the affected population and repairing of the damaged infrastructure. Yet another challenge for Omar is to do the exercise of identifying the black sheep who, knowingly or unknowingly, are making every effort to capsize his political boat.
His father and ex-J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah too had committed a blunder by remaining dependent on the 'vision and feedback' of a handful of media persons and bureaucrats when NC had lost to PDP-Congress combine in the 2002 Assembly elections.
Omar too is now sailing in the same boat. His "courtiers" did not have any idea of the appropriate Government response at the time of the deluge. It is rightly said "no sycophant would ever dare to make his master any suggestion. He would rather wait for the master to give him orders even when the latter is in dire need of some genuinely good advice".
Before NC lost power in 2002, the senior Abdullah was being constantly given assurance by his "Yes Men" that his party was going to win the seats required to form Government on its own. They did not apprise him of the ground reality. The junior Abdullah needs to understand all this. Instead of having an Army of "Yes Men" around him, he needs to welcome upright and honest people. If he does not do so, even God would fall short of the ways to steer him and his NC on the path of success and development. The way, that leads to success, is different from the one he is treading now. |
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