Will Omar Abdullah’s Old Guard Strategy Work? |
Farooq Abdullah has spent decades in Kashmir politics, long enough to know that a public controversy can sometimes reveal more about a party’s fears than its opponents’ intentions.
His recent statement has angered the BJP and self-proclaimed Kashmiri nationalists, who have demanded an apology.
The uproar has drawn attention away from a more serious question facing the National Conference: can the Abdullahs keep their government and party intact as internal dissent grows?
Farooq’s intervention comes as Aga Ruhullah’s planned resignation from Parliament, announced for November 3, threatens to deepen the party’s troubles.
The controversy has exposed the distance between the National Conference’s public claims of unity and its increasingly strained relationship with a leader who helped the party secure electoral victories.
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The party’s response to Ruhullah’s dissent has been revealing.
Its media machinery initially promoted the argument that if the government had failed to fulfil its manifesto promises, Ruhullah should resign and contest elections without the party’s support. Senior leaders maintained that his electoral victory belonged to the National Conference rather than to his personal standing among voters.
That argument ignored the party’s own conduct before the parliamentary elections.
Ruhullah had declared that he would not contest another election until Article 370 was........