Although politics is a complex business and one can never guess when and why, a political entity will shift his or her loyalties in this ‘game’ of attaining a coveted position in the power corridors by manipulating stances, statements, policies and situations.
In this context, Omar Abdullah has recently voiced his support for Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), to the much surprise of the Congress party because he criticized it for raising unnecessary concerns about the reliability of these voting machines which are in use in India for the last many decades. He pointed out that the same EVMs are considered acceptable when the Congress wins elections, but are deemed faulty and suspicious when the oldest party faces defeat.
Though National Conference leader and the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has affirmed that he has never opposed EVMs but he should not forget that his father and the party’s patron Dr Farooq Abdullah has opposed these voting machines on a number of occasions asking people to remain cautious during the polling days. Besides, Farooq has also stated before the results of the Lok Sabha polls that if the BJP will lose the elections, the new government would discard the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in polls as these are not being used anywhere else in the world but have been forced on electorate in the country.
Albeit, Omar Abdullah and Dr Farooq are the different entities and they can have difference of opinion but before taking his political ally Congress party head on over the issue of EVMs, the chief minister of J&K should have sorted out the matter with his own father and the patron of his party, as there is a famous adage, ‘people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’.
Reportedly, Omar Abdullah has dismissed the Congress party’s vehement objection to Electronic Voting Machines by saying that you can’t accept election results when you win, and blame EVMs when you lose. This statement has been taken as very seriously by the concerned quarters in the politics of J&K because in the coming days, such a stance by the chief minister Omar Abdullah can have serious repercussions leading to bitter ties with the Congress leadership, which stood tall with NC during the recently culminated Assembly polls that paved way for Omar Abdullah to become the head of the UT regime.
