Et Tu, Brutus? In Snow Season, Siyasat Fireworks Heat Up Kashmir
It is generally hoped that as the year ends, the problems that cropped up during the year shall also end. For Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, there seems to be no such solace. What adds insult to injury is that the assault is coming from National Conference’s (NC) own MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi.
The attacks started soon after Omar became chief minister. Over some key issues, MP Mehdi took a contrary public stance and targeted Omar. Initially it seemed that Mehdi and Omar were engaged in a Good Cop Bad Cop act to keep all segments of the electorate happy.
But with his post on X about the field negro, MP Mehdi seems to have declared war against the Abdullahs with no holds barred. It is hidden from none that Mehdi has obliquely called Omar Abdullah the house negro.
The highly derogatory reference has been well-explained in the post. This is the most blistering attack to discredit Omar. Ah! The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, that the attack has come from a fellow party leader.
Here’s the link to MP Mehdi’s searing post on X on December 24.
Explosive Insinuations
The overtones and undertones of MP Mehdi’s post leave little for the imagination. There is scathing reference to Jammu Kashmir’s power hierarchy vis-à-vis the Centre. MP Mehdi has also gheraoed the chief minister on issues of accountability and delivery of promises. This is a frontal attack on Farooq Abdullah and CM Omar Abdullah.
With this post, MP Mehdi has perhaps done more damage to Omar than PDP MLA Waheed Parra, People’s Conference MLA Sajad Lone or the rest of the opposition put together. National Conference’s landslide win in the Assembly elections had led to Omar Abdullah’s hope-filled ascension as chief minister. With his scorching attack, MP Ruhullah Mehdi has tried to discredit and delegitimize the chief minister.
Omar Abdullah’s Oblique Counterattack
The issue of reservation for government jobs has led to severe heartburn in Kashmir. General category youths are demanding “rationalisation of the reservation policy”. They have sought that reserved seats must be brought down to 25% from the present nearly 60%.
A protest by youths on this issue outside the residence of the chief minister gained huge traction after NC MP Ruhullah Mehdi decided to lead it.
MP Mehdi has perhaps done more damage to Omar than Sajad Lone, Waheed Parra, and the rest of the opposition put together
MP Mehdi has been at the forefront of the reservation issue in the region, and has held that his position is “people centric” and “transcends party lines”.
However MP Mehdi may frame it, the irony of his leading the protest was lost on none. CM Omar Abdullah later obliquely hit out at MP Mehdi after meeting the representatives of the Open Merit Students Association. He posted on X, “This channel of communication will remain open without any intermediaries or hangers on.”
NC Anger Over MP Mehdi’s Move
National Conference has hit out that MP Mehdi is “keen on having a larger-than-life image”. Talking to media persons later, NC’s youth wing president and Hazratbal MLA Salman Sagar did not skirt the issue. He said “some people who are with NC but were not born and bred in the party” had aligned with enemy forces to target NC. All know the reference is to MP Mehdi. His father was a Congress leader.
While national headlines on politics remain engaged in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi or other regions, it is Kashmir where the bizarre is playing out. More than the attacks launched by PDP, PC or other political leaders of Kashmir, MP Mehdi’s attack has the potential to dent NC because it comes from within the party. Like the Opposition leaders, Mehdi is attacking the dynastic hegemony of the Abdullah family. He is knocking Omar hard.
MP Mehdi’s Posturing, Its Implications
Going by his posturing, MP Mehdi is trying to emerge as a pan Kashmir or pan Muslim leader in the region. He has challenged the party’s status quo in Kashmir’s political arena and seems keen to don the role of a messiah in the region’s politics.
Kashmir has delegitimised separatism, but soft separatism remains a sizable constituency in the Valley. MP Mehdi seems ready to seize the pro-Kashmir, soft-separatist space in the region.
The strategy is unique indeed. The MP of the party is pitted against his own government. MP Mehdi seems to be trying to grab the space where he is seen as the only man with principles in his party.
The Equation Between Omar Abdullah and BJP
Some feel that Omar Abdullah tried to be a covert ally of BJP, but his overtures failed as the saffron party did not buy his stance. Perhaps BJP does not trust Omar because his stance and his statements during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra are on record and known to all.
It may even be said that the BJP does not need Omar Abdullah. BJP’s insecurities became irrelevant after their resounding success in Haryana and Maharashtra. The saffron party is on solid footing now. Kashmir or NC are not something they are likely to fret about.
MP Mehdi seems to be trying to prove Omar Abdullah tactically wrong. Assembly elections in Kashmir are still five and a half years away. Many may ask what are MP Mehdi’s objectives? What is he trying to trigger in Jammu Kashmir?
The Abdullahs have played the power game long enough to have a grip on its sinews. They are not likely to allow MP Mehdi to sieze political glory while they are in power.
Whatever MP Mehdi is trying to trigger, there certainly seems to be some strategy at play. No investment is a waste. Perhaps MP Mehdi is being futuristic by investing intensively in his political capital. Politics, after all, is the art of the possible.
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