For the country’s oldest and biggest political party, J&K should have been a much larger issue than routine electoral politics. It has an insignificant number of Lok Sabha seats and thus very little impact on the electoral tally at the national level; so, for a national party, there are many more important things at stake than simple electoral gain. It is ironic that narrow thinking led the Congress to be pivotal in creating a regional and communal divide within the state to gain local political mileage — which divide now benefits the BJP, which has played such dangerous and opportunistic politics that it swept the recent polls through Jammu’s Hindu heartland. The Congress, meanwhile, has already started playing soft Hindutva in Jammu to try and regain its base.

Outmanoeuvring the Congress in the power game is difficult, as even the shrewd Mufti found out post-2002. In 2008, the Congress changed alliance partners — dumping PDP and choosing NC — but returned to its myopic party-centric politics. Omar Abdullah , the “new face”, has been given two tainted Congressmen as senior cabinet ministers. Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand’s name was spoken of in connection with the Srinagar sex abuse scandal, which the previous administration didn’t sufficiently pursue — under Congress pressure. This newspaper exposed a massive scandal in staff recruitment for the legislative assembly — a process under then-Speaker Tara Chand. Then-Education Minister Peerzada Sayeed was asked to resign allegedly for taking bribes from a sitting legislator. Sayeed is back as education minister. Earlier, the government had initiated an investigation into his role in the rural electrification scam — a major case of embezzlement of public funds.

The acceptance of the tainted ministers in the new cabinet by Omar Abdullah is, however, not the only surrender. The Congress holds almost every important ministry: urban development, public works, tourism and health. It is an irony that the NC could only reach the 28 mark because of the sweep in Srinagar where it won all eight constituencies — but the party’s Srinagar stalwart, Ali Mohammad Sagar, has been made rural development minister. Neither will Srinagar get sufficient attention nor will Sagar be particularly interested in rural J&K. J&K’s apple-growers are essentially concentrated in north Kashmir’s Baramulla-Sopore-Rafiabad belt and Shopian in South Kashmir. But Omar’s horticulture minister is from Jammu’s Kathua district. The Valley is dependent on tourism, and is the face of J&K to tourists; but the tourism minister is a Congressman from Ladakh.

Apart from these serious handicaps, Omar Abdullah’s style of governance too has come in for some criticism within the first few weeks. Unable to resist the Congress or his own party’s old guard, he has brought in an educated young businessman-turned-legislator as his political adviser with minister of state status. Though a political adviser’s job is primarily to be the interface between the public and the chief minister, his work seems more administrative than political. Yes, the individual in question has been an important part of Omar’s core team, and his media manager for several years. And it is understandable that Abdullah wants people he trusts close — but for the NC, he remains an outsider and is not part of the party structure. This appointment, and others such, have started giving rise to disillusionment within the NC.

Although it is very early to assess the functioning of the Omar Abdullah led the NC-Congress coalition government, there is an immediate need for a serious introspection by both the Congress’s top leadership and by Omar so that these initial missteps do not cause faith in the new government to falter. It has been after decades that J&K has witnessed an overwhelming people’s participation in the elections, which were peaceful and fair. A failure for this coalition government will have consequences more serious than ever.

muzamil.jaleel@expressindia.com