Blunt Butcher
The ongoing Assembly elections may not be altogether a very serious affair, putting strains on the contestants and the parties they represent. There is lighter side of it as well. Amusing it may be but the fact remains that a BSP contestant on Friday withdrew his candidature from Jammu East in favour of Congress nominee, claiming that the policies of the two parties were identical. This must be indeed a piece of valuable information for Madam Sonia Gandhi and Kumari Mayawati.
In Jammu and Kashmir, politicians can justify anything and everything because they know how to get away with all this, anyway.
Choudhry Showkat Gujjar of BSP, having marginal presence in Jammu East, withdrew in favour of little known Vikram Malhotra, son of Chairman Legislative Council Amrit Malhotra, who has ironically never won any election; rather lost miserably whenever he contested. However, he became MLC and later Chairman of the LC, courtesy his close proximity to Saif-ud-Din Soz. It is also alleged that Vikram Malhotra was allotted the mandate by ignoring superior and strong claim of the former minister Yogesh Sawhney, again due to patronage of Pradesh Congress chief.
The self-proclaimed intellectual and seasoned politician Choudhry Showkat Gujjar has justified his withdrawal by saying that the policies and programmes of Congress and BSP were identical. No matter, true or wrong, the fact remains that the ‘arrangement’ has met the ‘ends’ of both the contenders. Choudhry Showkat need not bother his head to recollect how consistently BSP Supremo Kansi Ram and the present chief Kumari Mayawati have fought Congress tooth and nail over the empowerment of down-trodden and neglected segments of society. Let the political rivalry and mudslinging remain core of the two parties at the national level, Choudhry Showkat has all the reasons to have his last laugh over the ‘amicable settlement’.
Sad part of the theatric episode is that those not known even in their Mohallas, conveniently pretend to be Kings and the King Makers for obvious reason, which deserve no comments.
