Jammu, Oct 2: A senior Congress leader and Member Parliament Tuesday said that his party cannot sacrifice its interests for the friendship of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
“Rahul Ji Aur Omar Abdullah Ki Dosti Kay Liye Congress Apni Dukan Band Nahin Kar Sakti”, Member Parliament (MP) and former minister Madan Lal Sharma said, while addressing a function here today.
Reiterating his party’s demand for implementation of 73rd and 74th constitutional amendment in Jammu and Kashmir, the MP said that the coalition parties have their own agendas and programmes and empowerment of Panchayats was priority for the Congress.
Referring to the recent statement of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah alleging Congress of double speak, he said there are some people within State Congress who have nothing to do with party and its programmes but are “instead guarding their own interests”.
“But, I want to ask those leaders, are the Youth Congress members, who have launched a campaign in state for empowerment of Panchayats, insane”, he asked adding, Omar Abdullah and Rahul Gandhi could be good friends but that doesn’t mean that Congress will sacrifice its agenda for their friendship”.
Criticizing the National Conference for not empowering Panchayats in the state, Sharma further said that on one hand NC talks of autonomy but on the other it refuses to empower the Panchayati Raj institutions.
“NC talks of autonomy but refuses to empower Panchayats. I wonder, what Autonomy actually means for them?” Sharma said and asserted that the dream of Late Rajiv Gandhi to empower grassroots level institutions would be realized at every cost.
He claimed that no other party in J&K including opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and National Panthers Party talked about empowerment of Panchayats, before the issue was raised by the  Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress (JKPCC ) chief Saif-ud-din Soz.

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