Repressive policing, stringent curfews, 110 killings later Omar Abdullah is trying his rhetoric to reclaim some lost ground in Kashmir. Khursheed Wani reports.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah may be happy on two counts. One, there is no addition to the death count of 110 civilians since September-end. Secondly, his speech in the assembly to acknowledge Kashmir as a bilateral dispute of international recognition and the state’s conditional accession rather than merger, has created a debate, at least favourable for him at the home turf where his regime is at the lowest ebb with regard to popularity.

For most of the analysts, the autumn session of the assembly was nothing more than a constitutional formality to make the executive answerable to the legislature once in every six months. The opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chose to abstain the session in protest against the recent happenings in Kashmir. Some described the PDP’s decision as “criminal” to offer a level playing field for the ruling coalition during the session. However, the ruling National Conference decided to discuss the current unrest at its own. Two members of the party together with CPM legislator MY Tarigami introduced an adjournment motion to discuss the recent turmoil, which was eventually taken up for a full-fledged discussion spanning two days.

The unruly scenes in the legislative assembly on October 7, which resulted in injuries to four Bhartiya Janata Party and National Panthers’ Party legislators and an assembly staff, were in reaction to Omar Abdullah’s statement questioning the merger of Jammu and Kashmir with the Indian union. The BJP, which seeks abrogation of article 370 of the Indian constitution offering special status to J&K, decided to boycott the residual two sittings of the session after the happenings.

While winding up the discussion on current unrest in Kashmir Omar chose to touch some ticklish issues. “Accession of Jammu and Kashmir has taken place with India but the State has not merged with the country. It cannot be placed at par with Hyderabad or Junagarh,” he said. What irked the right-wing BJP is Omar’s choice of words to explain the agreement that led to the accession of the state. “The accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India has occurred under an agreement. We have not broken that agreement, nor have we taken it back, but you have gradually demolished it and people are aggrieved and angry over your act,” he said.

Omar stressed for addressing internal and international contours of the Kashmir issue. “It (Kashmir) is an internationally recognized issue. It is issue between the two countries in which the people of Jammu and Kashmir are being crushed,” he said while recalling New Delhi’s oft-repeated acceptance of “all outstanding issues including Jammu and Kashmir” and occurrence of  Agra, Lahore, Delhi and other Indo-Pak summits.

Interestingly, the BJP’s 11 and the Panthers’ Party’s three legislators patiently listened to Omar’s arguments without raising eyebrows. They did not even express any voice of dissent after the conclusion of the proceedings.
 
However, the hell broke on the following day when the entire gamut of opposition legislators belonging to Jammu region were seen on toes chanting slogans against Omar Abdullah and his government. They accused Omar of promoting separatist (Hurriyat) agenda. “The accession is final. Nobody in the world can change this reality. Kashmir is an integral part of India,” the BJP lawmakers shouted.

Political observers say that BJP legislators received overnight directions from New Delhi to oppose Omar Abdullah’s statement. BJP’s Muslim spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain reiterated his party’s demand to dismiss Omar Abdullah government.

“Last month, Rahul Gandhi had backed Omar, saying he should be given another chance. Omar must also recall his father Farooq Abdullah’s speech in Parliament wherein he described J&K as part of India. No one has given Omar the power to question the merger. He is the most unsuccessful and unpopular CM the State has ever had,” Hussain said.
 Omar Abdullah did not show signs of perturbance when the BJP legislators crated a din. In fact, he seemed to be satisfied with Speaker Muhammad Akbar Lone’s tough stance against the tempestuous legislators who ordered marshals to force them out and bolt gates to prevent their re-entry.

Observers say that Omar Abdullah was doing this to mend his public image in Kashmir valley, badly dented due to happenings of last four months in the Valley. People blamed him for the killings and unleashing a reign of terror.

On the ground level, the NC workers were almost ostracized, legislators feared to venture out of their own safe-houses and even Chief Minister’s writ reduced to his Gupkar Road mansion. On one point in time, Chief Minister was forced to visit Soura Medical Institute in a helicopter only to return with a torn shirt, when a woman attendant of an injured civilian spotted him and attacked him, while Omar was trying to convey his sympathies.

Omar knew that raising Kashmir issue is close and using “you” and “us” jargons is closer to the people’s sentiments in Kashmir. A veteran Kashmiri Muhammad Abdullah said that Omar’s grandfather Shiekh Muhammad Abdullah and father Dr. Farooq Abdullah have also experienced this “rhetoric” in the past.

And, he achieved the results. His enemy number one, Syed Ali Geelani, whose “Quit Kashmir Movement”, Omar blamed, was the root cause of the turmoil, endorsed his change of thought. “Illegal  Indian military presence forced the CM to unwillingly acknowledge the truth. This is the success and endorsement of Hurriyat’s stand,” he said. “The historical facts associated with the Kashmir dispute are so strong that the issue resonates from the Kashmir Assembly to the United Nations”, he said. Interestingly, Geelani’s 5-point proposals to Government of India include recognition of Kashmir issue as an “international dispute”.

Understandably, the NC leadership sought to gain maximum out of the controversy generated by Omar’s speech. Most of the NC legislators in the Upper House described his speech as historic and compared it with the statesmanship of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah. Observers say that it had a positive impact on the ground, particularly amongst the older generation. Even on the social networking site Facebook, a sprinkle of youngsters, came out openly to appreciate Omar’s views. The Facebook remained the potent platform for agitated youngsters during the ongoing turmoil to vent venom against Omar and his government. Even the security agencies were employed to track down the youngsters using the networking sites to berate the government and the police.

But some news channels created spanners on the Chief Minister’s newest method of image building in Kashmir. They ran clips of his landmark Parliament speech on the confidence motion against Manmohan Singh Government over Civil Nuclear deal in which Omar thundered that he was a Muslim and an Indian. They even played his father Farooq Abdullah’s statements that India was written in every chamber of his heart.

“Which Omar should we believe,” was the question of a prominent anchorperson. Interestingly, the main Opposition party PDP did not react to Omar’s speech. The coalition partner Congress chose to remain silent on the issue both at the state and the central level. While, the Congress ministers and legislators appreciated his government’s efforts to tide over the situation, Congress spokesman in New Delhi Shakeel Ahmad said he would not comment (on Omar’s speech) without knowing in what context did Omar make the statement. “We will have to see what he has exactly said and in what context. The all-party delegation’s recent visit was very successful and no attempt should be made to undo its achievement as J&K is a sensitive state,” he added.

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