SRINAGAR, Sep 3 (Agencies): Senior Congress leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir on Thursday defended the party’s alliance with the National Conference, saying the partnership was not forged for a Cabinet berth or any individual political benefit but to safeguard the interests of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Speaking about the continuing discussion over the vacant Cabinet berths in the Omar Abdullah-led government, Mir said the Congress should not be viewed merely through the number of MLAs it has in the Assembly.
“We have supported the National Conference at this time. We did not give this support for a Cabinet berth or for any job. We gave it because of the way communal forces are looking at Jammu and Kashmir, their attacks and their desire, which they had earlier as well, to establish themselves here,” Mir said.
He said the Congress had a larger political role to play in Jammu and Kashmir and that its commitment to the alliance went beyond the question of ministerial representation.
“If the National Conference is still safe, it is because of the Congress party, because the Congress party is the only party which will never want to give the BJP an opportunity. This is a solid commitment,” he said.
Mir was responding to questions over the delay in the expansion of the Council of Ministers and reports that one of the three vacant Cabinet positions could go to the Congress.
He said the issue had been under discussion for several months but maintained that the decision to induct or drop ministers ultimately rested with the Chief Minister.
“You have been hearing about Cabinet expansion and induction for three months. There is a date after date, but in practice it has not happened, because this is the sole prerogative of the Chief Minister. He will decide when and which MLA he wants to take and whom he wants to drop,” Mir said.
At the same time, he said the matter should not be reduced to a bargaining exercise over one Cabinet seat.
“The Congress is also a very big ocean, and Congress also has to look at the entire situation of Jammu and Kashmir. This is not merely about one Cabinet berth. The question is about the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the issues of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
Mir also cautioned against repeatedly referring to the Congress as a party with only six MLAs in the Assembly.
“If the National Conference looks at the Congress only according to the number six, if it weighs it on the basis that these are six people, then I think it is doing injustice to the Congress today,” he said.
He pointed out that the alliance had benefited both parties electorally and politically.
“It has to be weighed as a party. It is because of this party that the alliance happened and the National Conference benefited from it, and after that, if our party got six seats,” Mir said.
‘Government of India responsible for security situation’
Mir also criticised the Centre over the continuing security challenges in Jammu and Kashmir, saying the Union government could not shift responsibility for the situation to the elected government in the Union Territory.
Referring to threats against Kashmiri Pandits and recent militant incidents, he said the security situation had been one of the principal reasons cited for the changes made to Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutional and administrative status in 2019.
“The question arises that on August 5, 2019, citing these very threats, these very selective killings and these very incidents, the Home Ministry and the Government of India, without asking us, cut our neck and brought our state down,” Mir said.
He said the Centre had justified the move by arguing that it was necessary to improve the security situation and ensure that the entire law-and-order situation was dealt with by the Government of India.
“Now it is the seventh year. And even after the seventh year, we continue to see every year that killings are taking place, selective targets are taking place, and Kashmiri Pandits are also receiving threats,” he said.
Mir argued that responsibility for the situation therefore lay with the Centre.
“If this is a failure, then it is the failure of the Government of India, and all the agencies are in their hands,” he said.
He added that Jammu and Kashmir’s security and law-and-order machinery was no longer under the control of an elected state government.
“Today, no person in Jammu and Kashmir has these security agencies or law and order in his hands. In the UT, the Lieutenant Governor is looking after it, and at the Centre, the Home Minister of India is looking after it. So definitely, if the voice is raised that threats are still being received, the responsibility goes to the Government of India,” Mir said.
‘Financial situation not so bad that children should be on streets’
Mir also backed the demands of protesting students and professionals seeking greater financial assistance from the Jammu and Kashmir government.
He said the demands appeared genuine and that Jammu and Kashmir was providing significantly less support compared with other states.
“It is a human issue, clearly. Their issue should be resolved. We will also appeal to the Chief Minister because Finance is with him and he should take a call,” Mir said.
While acknowledging the Union Territory’s financial constraints, he said the government should find a middle path.
“We believe that the financial situation of our state is not so good. But it is not so bad either that we should see thousands of our children on the streets. Some middle path should be found,” he said.
Mir warned that if the issue remained unresolved, the Congress would raise it with other political parties and seek a clear response from the Chief Minister when the House resumes.
“If they do not do it, then definitely, being the Congress legislature party in the House, we will talk to other parties as well, and from the 21st, when the House begins, if it is not resolved by then, we will definitely want, along with our other colleagues, that the Chief Minister give a solid answer on this and resolve their issue,” he said.
On Congress and possible political returnees
Asked about speculation surrounding leaders who may seek to return to the Congress, Mir said the party’s doors remained open to those who shared its ideology.
“Congress is an ocean. But Congress has its own ideology. For those whose ideology matches that ideology, or whose ideology aligns with the Congress ideology, the doors are open,” he said.
However, he dismissed speculation about some individuals returning to the party, saying some of them had left Congress decades ago.
“Some of those whose names you have taken left Congress after eating and drinking for 40-45 years, and their stomachs may not yet be full there, so why would they look back?” Mir said, adding that much of the speculation was confined to social media.
He also criticised the conduct of the two major political parties during a recent protest, arguing that issues affecting ordinary people had been sidelined.
“There was no issue of 14 million people in it. Both of them were for taking a chair and saving a chair. This was the first time in 80 years of democracy that the party in power was on the streets,” Mir said.
He said political parties should instead be taking up issues such as unemployment, rising electricity bills and the problems faced by young people.
“If tomorrow a forum is formed and takes up all these issues and says, ‘Come to Srinagar’, and five lakh people stand there, demanding answers from both governments, then will pellet guns be fired at that time? Will it be said then that they were anti-national?” Mir asked.