Six years of Omar Abdullah: Towards a son set in Kashmir

Over a decade ago when Omar Abdullah joined state politics, separatist Hurriyat Conference leader Gani Bhat, had said, “The sun has long set on Kashmir, son rise or son set will not make any difference to it.”

After six long years with Abdullah’s tenure about to end, it is also seen as the end, perhaps, of his political career with the grand old party, J&K National Conference, going through its worst ever crisis since being defeated in the Lok Sabha elections this year.

As the Election Commission (EC) announced dates for the Assembly elections, Abdullah tweeted from London, “While National Conference was keen to rehabilitate the flood affected people before anyone else's political rehabilitation, the EC felt differently. Now with election dates announced there is no question of not contesting the forthcoming polls. We will put our best foot forward.”

From going to the elections to win in 2008 to putting his best foot forward in 2014, Abdullah has come a long way. He was sworn in as the 11th chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on January 5, 2009, becoming the youngest CM of J&K at the age of 38 after NC emerged the single-largest party with 28 seats in the 87-member Legislative Assembly.

Soon after he took oath, Abdullah faced his first challenge in February 2009 when the Army killed two persons at Bomai in north Kashmir, Sopore, triggering massive protests. Abdullah ordered an inquiry which held a Major and two troopers guilty. He met the Defence Minister and got the camp shifted. But he didn’t play it up instead sought revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). He seemed committed to withdrawal of the law which gives armed forces protection from prosecution while operating in disturbed area. But his consistent failures to revoke the AFSPA gave the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) a chance of accusing him of lowering the dignity of the CM’s chair, because he had knocked the door of everyone from the Union Home Minister to the Army Chief during the UPA 2 arguing why the law is not needed anymore. Even last week, he emphasised that the AFSPA should go.

When PDP legislator Muzaffer Hussain Baig in 2009 accused Abdullah of figuring in the Srinagar sex scandal of 2006 during a debate in the State Assembly, a shocked Abdullah announced his resignation while saying in other criminal cases one is innocent till proven guilty but in this case (sex scandal) one is guilty till proven innocent. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which had investigated the sexual exploitation case was quick to say that Abdullah didn’t figure in the list. Abdullah’s spontaneous reaction to the allegation won him a lot of admirers.

But in 2010 when paramilitary forces and the police opened fire on protesters leading to killings of 117 youth over six months, Abdullah went into a shell. His ministers asked the Centre to “rein in” the security forces, but the Union Home Secretary took charge of the State announcing lifting of curfew from New Delhi. Abdullah didn’t resign fearing PDP would take over.

Over the next three years, Abdullah constituted commissions of inquiry, ordering probes into civilian killings by the armed forces. In April 2012, Abdullah faced another controversy when he called one of his party workers, Haji Muhammad Yousuf, to his house to inquire allegation of fraud against him. He handed Yousuf to IGP crime. Next day, the worker died in police custody. PDP described it as a “sordid case of murder in the CM house,” and accused the CM’s close associates of beating Yousuf to death. Abdullah constituted a commission of inquiry to probe the death which last year exonerated him.

During all these years his government came up with the State Accountability Commission, Right to Information and Public Services Guarantee Act. Abdullah can take credit for holding Panchayat elections in the state in 2011 after 33 years. There was an improvement in infrastructure and educational institutions. Investment in power sector increased. But at the same time his ministers were out of control. Three Congress ministers had to resign following corruption charges. The public sentiment is that he has no grip over the administration and Congress party doesn’t listen to him. When he forced a Congress minister to resign following corruption charges, the minister instead sent the resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

This year, Abdullah got a rude shock when he lost all three seats in the Lok Sabha elections in Kashmir. His party blamed Congress for the defeat. For the first time in his political career, Dr Farooq Abdullah lost an election in Jammu and Kashmir. Soon after his defeat Omar Abdullah did what he was not doing. He increased retirement age of employees, increased recruitment age, gave sops to government employees, cleared pending projects, didn’t bother about Congress which was decimated by the BJP in the centre and did what he felt he should have done.

But the floods in September drowned everything. Even his seat of governance. He admitted he had no government for three days. His ministers left, his bureaucrats deserted him though he remained in the valley. As the flood waters receded, the government had no funds for relief and rehabilitation. Abdullah looked toward the Centre and sought a delay in elections. But he failed to get anything from them. And EC announced elections in November.

Abdullah says he will go to the people with his report card. Already the report card is out, with Ghulam Nabi Azad blaming Congress’s downfall in the State on NC, and NC saying it would have done better had Congress not been its ally.  

With this dismal report card, Omar and NC face an impossible task ahead. That is to prove Gani Bhat wrong. That a son set doesn’t make any difference to Kashmir.