Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is under fire from his colleagues in the INDIA bloc for the warm welcome he gave Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the latter’s trip to the Valley recently. The PM was there to inaugurate the 6.5 km Z-Morh tunnel in Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, making the Sonamarg accessible year-round for tourists. As the CM said, this will improve the road connectivity in the Valley so that those living in the upper regions would no longer have to travel to the plains as they will now benefit from year round road connectivity. Given that the purpose of the visit was development oriented and not a political event, it shows a certain maturity on the Chief Minister’s part by not indulging in partisan politics. The former state of J&K requires special handling but that apart, any state (or union territory) will benefit from a good equation with the Centre. The BJP has gone hoarse talking about a `double-engine sarkar’ but the principles of federalism are based on the foundations of a viable working relationship between the centre and the state.
The Chief Minister is a pragmatic politician. Plus he has seen what the path of confrontation has achieved. It was post the very acrimonious PDP-BJP alliance break-up that the Modi Government revoked Article 370 and took away statehood from the Valley. If that statehood has to be restored then CBMs (Confidence Building Measures) need to be offered from both sides. For now, the Modi Govt seems to be playing its part, so why should the CM raise hackles unnecessarily. That too at the inauguration of a much-needed developmental project. Opposition for the sake of optics achieves nothing. It should be issue based and the CM has had his fair share of run ins with Lt Governor Manoj Sinha over administrative and appointment of key personnel including the continuance of the Advocate General in office. The CM was keen that Advocate General DC Raina continued to represent J&K in the courts, but no such direction has been forthcoming from the Raj Bhavan. (Raina had resigned when Omar’s government took office but the CM had asked him to continue). In addition certain transfers of bureaucrats by the Lt Governor’s office have not gone down well with the CM. The Lt Governor also turned down a proposal by the National Conference (NC) to reinstate its founder, Sheikh Abdullah’s birth anniversary as a national holiday.
Omar’s detractors, both outside the party and within – have taken potshots at the apparent proximity between the CM and the BJP Prime Minister. Recently Omar has been critical of the INDIA bloc which came together to fight the BJP in the Lok Sabha but since then, there has been little coordination, particularly between the Congress and the Aam Admi Party. Since the Congress did not give the AAP any seats in the Haryana polls, Arvind Kejriwal is not accommodating the Congress in the Delhi elections where both are fighting separately. This had Omar Abdullah wondering publicly where the INDIA bloc should be disbanded if its purpose was limited to taking on the BJP during Lok Sabha 2024. Soon after Omar was seen posting pictures on social media overseeing preparation for the PMs visit to inaugurate the tunnel. Not one to miss an opportunity, the PM immediately responded with much bonhomie on social media. This of course riled up Omar’s detractors.
However. there seems to be a method behind this attempt to forge a transactional relationship with the Centre. While campaigning for the 2024 Lok Sabha, Omar had been clear that he would contest the assembly polls only if statehood was restored. His logic being that he did not want to indulge in the kind of politics Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was undertaking where more time was spent on dharnas and being at loggerheads with the Centre; than on governance issues. For reasons best known to him (along with pressure from colleagues) Omar changed his stance and ended up contesting the local polls. His party won with a resounding mandate, but that mandate was limited to Kashmir and not Jammu where the NC did not do as well. However, Omar has maintained that he is CM of both Jammu & Kashmir. Second, it makes little sense to oppose a prime minister (of whichever party) who is coming to the state to inaugurate a development project. It is much more graceful, and good politics, to give credit where its due, and hold back the firepower for another day. Pick your battles.
