Though defecting from one party to the other party is no crime in India and same holds good for mainstream politicians in Jammu and Kashmir but terming defection a virtuous job in the 21st century is an insult to the institution of democracy and the idea of political morality. Unfortunately National Conference President Farooq Abdullah while welcoming two former PDP leaders into the party fold Wednesday this week at his residence termed the joining of two new entrants to his party after quitting the other party a virtuous job. Farooq Abdullah himself was a victim of political defections in 1986 when over one and a half dozen legislators quitted his party and collaborated with the other party to dislodge his elected government and as such Abdullah calling quitting one party and joining another speaks volumes about his ideas about democracy and political morality . Not only Farooq Abdullah himself but his father late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah too has been deserted by his die hard loyalists in the early fifties.
By no standards of the political understandabilities the defection of any politician can be called a virtuous job and more so when any politician quits one party to join the other party purely for securing his electoral interests in the upcoming elections.
If Farooq Abdullah believes that changing party is a virtuous job then what about the deserters of late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and legislators who withdrew support to National Conference government and collaborated with another party to dislodge an elected government in the year 1986 Gh Mohammad Shah led ANC-Congress coalition government was formed. By no standards of the political understandabilities the defection of any politician can be called a virtuous job and more so when any politicians quits one party to join the other purely for securing his electoral interests in the upcoming elections. Farooq Abdullah could have simply welcomed the new entrants to his party National Conference with some encouraging remarks about the challenges in the coming parliamentary and assembly elections. Farooq Abdullah can’t change the perception of the people of Kashmir about leaders of either National Conference or PDP who they believe have always acted as political deserters but not as their saviours.
