Image: IANS
SRINAGAR: Days after J&K CM Omar Abdullah described the “vote chori” as an issue of the Congress alone and said the INDIA bloc had “nothing to do with it,” the party on Saturday said being in alliance does not negate a constituent’s political ideology.“Omar Abdullah was present in various meetings of the INDIA bloc, whether they took place in Kolkata or elsewhere. The alliance was very successful in the parliamentary elections, though we have not achieved 100 percent success,” Congress’s Salman Khurshid said responding to question whether Omar is drifting away from the alliance.“Alliance is not a negation of independent political parties. They don’t write off their own identity and own ideology,” Khurshid said at a press conference here.On Dec 15, J&K CM distanced himself from the “vote chori” issue raised by the Congress and said the “INDIA bloc has got nothing to do with it”.Early this week, he repeated the statement in New Delhi.Khurshid said Jammu and Kashmir’s demand for statehood was a fight for its very existence, describing statehood as an identity that had been taken away.He also questioned the removal of Mahatma Gandhi’s name from the rural employment law MGNREGA. “What was the need to change the name of the scheme?” he said, adding that it is an emotive issue for the Congress. Omar echoed his comments, saying no one could erase Gandhi’s legacy, irrespective of whether his name remained attached to the scheme. “Mahatma Gandhi lives in the hearts of the people of India,” he said, describing the original scheme as far-sighted. He accused the NDA government of attempting to weaken the MGNREGA by shifting its financial burden on the states, saying the Centre ultimately wanted to do away with it altogether.
