aaryan sharma
JAMMU: In less than two weeks time Working President of the National Conference and former state Chief Minister Omar Abdullah apparently has a change of heart over the issue of demonetisation.
On November 16, 2016 when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee led a protest march from Parliament House to the Rashtrapati Bhawan, Omar had walked alongside her.
At that time his presence had raised many an eyebrows, as even Congress and Left parties had decided to stay away and avoided pressing for roll back of the historic decision.
The opposition parties decided to corner the Modi-led government over the issue of hardships faced by the common man on the streets on account of poor implementation of the crack-down against the black money.
Omar’s move too had come under the scanner. Question marks were raised as a mature politician Omar had failed to read the writing on the wall and taking the plunge against the tide.
After several senior politicians cutting across party lines including Nitish Kumar, Navin Patnaik and Shiv Sena, supported the move, Omar may have been forced to reorient his strategy.
After committing the blunder, now it seems Omar is trying to do some course correction to salvage lost pride of his own party in the eye of the likeminded leaders.
It is for this reason that on Monday when opposition parties organised nation-wide Aakrosh rallies, Omar Abdullah and his party leaders were found absent on ground zero. None of the party leaders neither expressed Aakrosh nor participated alongside Congress leaders in the protest against the demonetisation drive.
Recent outbursts by his father and party President Dr Farooq Abdullah over the question of India’s claim over Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) may have also forced Omar to rework his party strategy as his father was greeted with brick bats and unconditional apologies were sought from him over his irresponsible comments. Speaking at a public rally in Kishtwar Dr Farooq Abdullah had otherwise urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop penalising common masses in the name of war against black money. Dr Abdullah had also raised question marks over the issue of misuse of black money in contesting elections.
