Jammu, May 10: Former Chief Minister and working President National Conference Omar Abdullah is a changed person since his party lost the Assembly elections as it has given him and the party the much need break for introspection and watching the government from the opposition angle.
In a way it is good for the people as a strong opposition is supposed to help mitigate the problems of the common man by keeping a tab on the actions of the government and pinpointing its weaknesses. And if anything proved that Omar actually needed the break it was his speech on the floor of the House in Jammu where people for the first time praised him for his mature, clear and pointed speech.
And now he is also leading the main opposition to take digs at the government as well as the chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed which was evident from his much publicized tweets on the pitiable condition of roads in the twin cities of Jammu and Srinagar.
However such a diatribe from an ex- chief minister who just a few months back was ruling the state reminds one of the famous phrase The pot calling the kettle black and it perfectly fits the former chief minister who has chosen to blame his own governments mistakes on the new government only because now he sits in the opposition.
The digs that Omar is taking on Mufti is actually Omar’s own doing and what he could not achieve in six long years he wants the new government to do in six weeks time.
Well this is not to absolve the new government of its responsibilities as by now people have started cursing themselves for electing a government that has turned a nelsons eye towards the basic problems staring directly on the helplessness of the common man.
While commuters are facing the wrath of the potholes in the twin cities the new government has shrugged off its responsibility of a prompt action saying it may take longer to tackle the problem which means the people in Jammu and Kashmir have to bear the brunt of pot holed roads for entire 2015 for their choice to elect a government that promised more central funds and prompt development.
The new government seems confused as it is yet to deal with its teething problems and coalition compulsions while the opposition too seems more interested in politicking rather than coming to the rescue of the common man.
The pot calling the kettle black syndromehas also gripped the Congress party that too is enjoying the ‘starting’ problems of the new government knowing well that it was the Congress-NC coalition that is actually responsible for the mess that has been created in this state.
However as the politics in India has been going on since its Independence it has always been a blame game and passing off the buck by one dispensation to another.
Another common thing that we witness in India is that every time a new government takes over it dashes the hopes of its voters to ground saying they have inherited a bankrupt economy, empty treasuries and huge liabilities from the past government as if the previous one had done nothing and similar statements come from the next one that takes over from this one and it has been going on since we thought we were now free citizens with our own governments to remove all our miseries.
The result however has been only disappointments with many people now saying British were better than these looters who are one way looters while British did some good things too.
It was perhaps for such politicians in mind that a poem in an early-twentieth-century school textbook Maxwell’s Elementary Grammar, 1904 was added which read something like this:
“Oho!” said the pot to the kettle;
“You are dirty and ugly and black!
Sure no one would think you were metal,
Except when you’re given a crack.”
“Not so! not so!” kettle said to the pot;
“‘Tis your own dirty image you see;
For I am so clean – without blemish or blot –
That your blackness is mirrored in me.”
The tweet by Omar Abdullah, the former chief minister who ruled us till some months back summarizes it all when he tweeted “Dear Mufti Sahib, for your trip to your constituency today please shun the helicopter & drive so you can see the state of the “highway”. “One of those eternal mysteries – why do VIP/VVIP backsides only feel comfortable sitting on towels, especially nice new white ones???, he said.
Now it is the turn of Muftis’ to respond and the buck stops nowhere.