Vijay Gupta
Soon after 2008 elections Omar Abdulla staged a coup against his father Dr Farooq Abdullah and managed to become Chief Minister of the state heading a coalition with the Indian National Congress. In fact this seemed to be result of a Gulam Nabi Azad initiative who wanted to get even with the PDP for withdrawing support to his government in early 2008. Apart from this Gulam Nabi Azad promoted this move as a trial run for Rahul Gandhi who happened to be Omar Abdullah’s buddy and was slated to take over reins from Dr. Man Mohan Singh in the early years of UPA-II. A chastised senior Abdullah was consigned to Centre as Union Minister for Renewal Energy.
This coup however had had to happen. In early 2008, Omar Abdulla, had starting charting his own course. In a surprising move he raised a pitch against a proposal of Baba Amarnath Shrine Board, headed by N.N. Vohra, Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, to acquire land for raising some halting facilities for pilgrims at Baltal. Very well orchestrated the pitch soon became a crescendo and within a month or so became a jingoistic match between Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti who in the absence of Mufti Mohamed Sayeed was guided by a money bag of the PDP in Srinagar. This then saw a first communal divide of its kind between Hindu majority Jammu Province and Muslim majority Kashmir Province. Both Omar and Mehbooba had opposed the Shrine Board proposal all guns blazing.
Another not so subtle indication was given when the very next day after declaring that not a single inch of land would be given to the Shrine Board on July 22, 2008 in Parliament (however many in Parliament and in media had interpreted it differently), he, while addressing his supporters in Kupwara the very next day got carried away and boasted that he (Omar Abdullah) is not like other leaders (meaning of course his father Dr. Farooq and grandfather Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah) who utter one thing in Delhi and another in Srinagar. All this communal rhetoric too had impressed Gulam Nabi Azad.
Omar Abdullah’s choice of an after- polls-plank too had his own stamp on it. He ignored his father’s (Dr. Farooq Abdullah) 1996 after- polls -plank of greater autonomy to the state and adopted ‘withdraw AFSPA ACT’ as an agenda of his governance with a view to endearing himself to people of Kashmir Valley permanently. Though the central government had shown some signs of capitulation due to political considerations the Security Agencies and Army remained steadfast in its opposition to the proposal.
Omar Abdullah’s, six years rule (2008-2014) would be known for rampant corruption, less governance and an excess of ‘tweet’ ‘tweet’. He, however, did succeed in decimating all links his father had so painstakingly built over two decades with BJP leadership both at the local and at the national levels. Quite strangely he forgot that it was his (Dr. Farooq’s) nationalistic rhetoric and his rapport with Atal Bihari Vajpayee that made the Narsimha Rao Government in the Centre to virtually install him as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir ending almost six years of President’s rule. This was done in spite of the fact that in 1990 Farooq Abdullah had left the state in utter disgrace. Omar Abdullah also forgot the rousing welcome that people of Jammu gave to Farooq on his first visit to the city after becoming CM in 1996.
An unusually shrill campaign against BJP in general and PM candidate Modi in particular during elections to the Parliament in May 2014 completed the task of arraignment with the BJP. No wonder after November 2014 elections to the State Assembly, watched helplessly by his father Omar Abdullah found all door shut for an alliance with BJP which had emerged as the single largest party in the state for the first time in the electoral history of Jammu and Kashmir. Eventually hitherto unthinkable happened.
Both BJP and PDP after prolonged deliberations and after having framed a well defined common agenda for governance, formed a government in 2015. Developments in Srinagar since July 2016 after Burhan Wani’s death have tested the bedrock of trust between the leadership of Prime Minister Modi and the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti successfully.
A rattled leadership of the National Conference Party has again saddled the old war horse Dr. Farooq Abdullah for the purpose of reviving its fast depleting fortune. Commis-sioned for the purpose Dr. Farooq has let loose a volley of outrageous statements which in fact has further compounded the pathetic state of the Party. It is ironical that a party which used to ridicule the PDP for its alleged links with the separatist leadership in the Valley, today, has declared its intention of joining hands with the separatist leadership for the ‘independence’ of Kashmir. All this just to sustain a façade of his (Dr. Abdullah) prophesied concern for the people of Kashmir. He needs to answer a million dollar question first.
Farooq needs to be reminded that in 1975 a really true love and genuine concern for people of Kashmir had been shown by the then Chief Minister of this state, Mir Qasim. Mir Qasim had at that time persuaded his party (Indian National Congress) Chief and Prime Minister Mrs. Indra Gandhi to hand over the reins of this state of Jammu and Kashmir to Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah with a view to bringing an enduring peace in Jammu and Kashmir. Eventually Sheikh Abdullah took over as CM of J&K in early 1975.
What stopped Farooq Abdullah in replicating the sagacity and magnanimity of Mir Qasim when an opportunity came his way in 1996? Obviously the lure of his known love for pleasure and power took precedence over his ‘love and concern’ for Kashmir. The love and concern he is so keenly exhibiting of late he could have more importantly been expressed in 1996 and at the same time atoned for his sins of a highly discredited 1989 elections in the state when his administration sabotaged sure victory of Sallahudin and Co. of MUF. A Sallahudin as an elected legislator of the State Assembly, any day, would have been a much better option than a Sallahudin in Pakistan promoting terror in India with vengeance. Jingoism will not buy lost relevance for Dr. Farooq Abdullah and his National Conference Party.
(The views of author are personal)
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