Well before the crisis in Kashmir had turned uglier (leading to a strict curfew), chief minister Omar Abdullah tried to reach to people on New Delhi’s advice. Kashmir Life tracks the efforts.
Kashmir’s beleaguered ruler Omar Abdullah seems to have acted upon the advice of Home Minister P Chidambaram that he should reach out to the people and defuse the crisis. He started from Srinagar on July 4 by interacting with a gathering of civil society representatives. During his over 210-minute meeting with the trade leaders and a select group of senior citizens from city, he did not use his blackberry. Barring a clarification that the slain schoolboy from Baramulla was a ninth standard student and not nine-year-old, Omar did not get angry at all. He did not threaten either, the participants said.
Omar, the participants said, was apparently receptive to suggestions. He even regretted that he should have initiated this process quite early. “This time, he was neither angry nor looked non-serious but he definitely sounded helpless,” one participant who wishes to remain anonymous said. “He hinted at his prevailing disconnect with the ground realities but indicated he will mend the fence.”
On participants’ insistence, the meeting started with the prayers for the 11 “martyrs” besides observing a two minute silence. After Omar’s brief address followed detailed speeches by the invitees. Invariably, all of them were unanimous that the unrest will recur as long as Kashmir remains unaddressed politically.
“You are treating the symptoms,” said renowned doctor A Q Allaqaband, “make efforts to treat the disease.” He suggested more investment in city’s sports infrastructure.
“It is a police state,” said a hotelier, adding, “Given the statement by the home minister only Lashkar-e-Toiba lives in Kashmir.”
Ali Mohammad Watali, a retired DIG who runs a security service now told Omar that stone-pelting is not a new phenomenon. “We knew how it is to be tackled,” he said. The officer who was instrumental in rounding up the first batch of militants during insurgency’s amorphous years said for last 20 years the police is being trained to kill. “It is high time to get the police force out of that mindset and train it for routine, regular policing that includes mob management.”
Many participants talked about corruption, failure in good governance and mishandling of the situation as well. But it was the political content that dominated the interaction, first of its kind in Omar’s almost one and a half years rule.
“How many prime ministers in India went on promising things to us,” said a businessman Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Matoo. “The last one talked about the sky being limit to autonomy. We did not even see a tree length of it,” he said. He suggested that it is high time for the governments in Delhi and Srinagar to started settling the mess. “There were many working groups that had come with a number of suggestions. Why are not these being implemented?” he asked.
“We were fair in offering our inputs,” Nazir Ahmad Dar, the president of Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) told Kashmir Life. “We said an unresolved Kashmir is the main problem and the principal motivation for the unrest.” Dar said Omar promised them that though he did contest elections on the plank of basic facilities like water, power and roads, he still will convey the assessment to the central government.
“We suggested many things like preventing giving communal colour to the situation, dubbing innocents as militants, punishing personnel responsible for the violations for human rights and getting local police to the forefront and not the CRPF,” said Shakeel Kalander, the president of the Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir (FCIK). “But the most important thing we said was that unless serious efforts are not made to resume dialogue with the relevant political dispensations in Kashmir, these situations will re-arise.”
Omar did made an effort to de-link the incidents taking place in Srinagar, Sopore and Islamabad but the participants disagreed. They could not understand why the chief minister was suggesting that education was suffering in Srinagar unlike villages where schools are open and functioning.
Chief Minister suggested them to be the “watchdogs” of his government and “suggest course corrections”. He said Kashmir issue needs political resolution and this can only happen when all the stakeholders make an effort in right earnest to find a solution. “We have been strong votaries of dialogue both internal as well as external to help resolve issues,” he said underlining the importance of urgent need of restoring the dialogue process”. He reiterated that Kashmir problem is a political one and needed a political solution. “Economic packages can have their role but these alone cannot address the aspirations of the people of the state”, he said.
Omar said expression of views is the right of every citizen in democratic setup but anger should not be expressed by throwing stones. He suggested “other democratic methods” for registering protest but did not explain. He said he will “discipline the security forces and book the violators of human rights.”
Central government as well as the Congress High Command have decided against getting Omar out of the hot-seat. They apparently lack options as well. But they have suggested him to change his style of governance. In fact, Chidambaram has been asked to play his “big brother” and help get Kashmir back on tracks.
His similar outreach programme to Baramulla (he had his wife also flying to the town) and Islamabad were not as impressive as Srinagar was. While in Baramulla most of the discussion was trans-LoC trade, there were quite a few locals from Islamabad who attended the meeting. Most of them had actually been driven from Kulgam, DH Pora, Doru, Kokernag, Pahalgam and other places. But MHA’s intervention helped Omar to improve his earlier record. He drove to Shopian almost a year after his remark over the twin deaths triggered a crisis.
