Jammu, Oct 27: Former minister and senior Congress leader Sham Lal Sharma Sunday said lack of coordination between coalition partners—National Conference and Congress—hit governance in J&K “by and large” in the past six years.
He said both the parties “worked as single units and never backed each other as alliance partners.” “Congress always put up legitimate issues of people of the State while the approach of NC leaders remained Kashmir-centric, leading to confrontations,” he alleged.
He said, “Not having a Common Minimum Programme (CMP) before entering into alliance with NC was a biggest political mistake of my party. Due to this drawback, the Congress had to protest for its every demand and many times ask the High Command to intervene and solve the issues.”
“Congress fought a long agitation for empowerment of Panchayats, refugees, youth, new administrative units for deserving areas of Jammu province and staged several protests against its own government only due to biased approach of few NC leaders,” he said.
Without naming any Congress leader, Sharma said he could not get as much support from his own party ministers as he expected on several issues related to Jammu.
Again raking up the issue of a Hindu Chief Minister for J&K, he said, “People of Jammu are also bona-fide residents of the State, so why they can’t have a Hindu CM from Jammu?”
He said if a person belonging to a minority community that constitutes just two percent of the population of the country can be a prime minister for 10 years and a Muslim can become a President, why can’t a Hindu be a chief minister of J&K where Hindus form the largest minority?”