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Kamal’s angry outburst

Kashmir Times. Dated: 10/22/2013 12:49:26 AM

He’s ended up admitting National Conference’s penchant for patronizing, rewarding corrupt elements

The frustrated outburst of National Conference additional general secretary Mustafa Kamal in retaliation to several NC loyalists joining the Congress fold hasn’t helped the party any bit. It has only left the party more exposed as incompetent and one that encourages and cocoons corrupt elements. The old adage goes that if you point an accusing finger at someone, four point back at you. Kamal’s foot in mouth comments this week, one after the other, are symptomatic of the same disease. His tirade against Aslam Goni was followed by his even more scathing attack on Farooq Ahmed Renzu. After accusing Goni for the cricket scam, without sparing a thought on how such a statement would impact the image of his brother and NC president Farooq Abdullah (Goni was a close associate of senior Abdullah both in politics and cricket association), he has gone a step further with his Renzu Act. Not only did he call the former bureaucrat corrupt, he maintained that despite Renzu’s incompetence, National Conference government offered him coveted posts. Whether or not that was a thoughtful remark, it end up exposing his party’s uncanny ability of patronizing, shielding and protecting corrupt and incompetent men while in power. Renzu remained a blued eyed boy of the party throughout his career and rose to the highest rungs of power by sheer dint of his sycophancy. The acknowledgement that he’d been corrupt is an acknowledgement of the promotion of corruption and patronization of corrupt elements by the political leadership in power. Kamal’s assertions that Renzu was ‘tolerated’ and gifted with prize postings of heading the Information Department and Srinagar Development Authority, even as he accuses Renzu of gross malpractices during his tenure of vice chairman of this body, is an open admission straight from the horse’s mouth that corrupt and incompetent men in the administration are not only tolerated but also rewarded by his party. That National Conference, especially while in power, has patronised corruption and promoted it to unprecedented levels is already a well known fact and the present regime has earned notoriety of breaking all previous records of successive governments in patronising corrupt elements, favouring incompetent blue eyed favourites and getting increasingly obsessed with the transfers within the administrative set-up. Mustafa Kamal’s angry outburst may not simply be a case of a bad worker quarelling with his tools.
The NC general secretary’s directionless venom also manifests the landscape of changing political equations. Visibly, the tone and tenor of frustration stems from a dozen well known names, majority of them erstwhile NC loyalists, joining the Congress camp. None of them have the power or ability to create a major dent in National Conference’s vote bank and many of them have no grassroots following that could impact National Conference adversely or make Congress a major gainer. However, in terms of psychological impact in the political world, it has made its mark not simply for the list of whos who that has joined the Congress fold with huge fanfare but more for the announcement it seeks to make of distancing itself from National Conference. The dozen people, prominent in their own right but no political heavy-weights, joining the Congress party may well be a precursor to how political alliances are likely to shape in the near future. In the run up to assembly polls in a year’s time, Congress has been non committal on whether it would be going to the battle of hustings in alliance with National Conference or not. It is in this light that the much celebrated party joining ceremony has jolted the latter and its general secretary, who are obviously well aware of the impossibility of not just staking claim to the government on their own but also retaining their present strength in the state assembly. This is primarily where Kamal’s frustration stems from, notwithstanding his trademark animosity for the Congress party even as it remains a major alliance partner of National Conference in power.