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| Omar only talked rail, rail and rail | | Modi Effect | |
Neha
Jammu, July 5: On Friday, the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the inaugural train to Udhampur from the newly built Katra station, his impact on NC working president and J&K CM Omar Abdullah was quite visible. Omar Abdullah didn't talk politics. Nor did he talk about the so-called Kashmir problem. He confined his short address only to the subject: Flagging off the inaugural train to Udhampur and importance of the railways. A day before, Omar Abdullah had talked too much politics in Kashmir while addressing party workers at different places and reiterated that he would never mince words when it came to Kashmir.
It was the first ever occasion when Omar Abdullah avoided any reference to the so-called Kashmir issue during the past more than five years. Earlier, when former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or UPA chairperson and AICC president Sonia Gandhi visited the state, he used to say on their face that the Kashmir problem was not economic. Financial packages would not win the hearts and minds of the alienated Kashmiris, he used to say. He also used to say that employment packages would not help to resolve the Kashmir issue. He used to underscore the need to address the so-called Kashmir problem politically. To be more exact, he used to say that Jammu and Kashmir was a political problem that needed a political solution. In other words, he would tell Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi on their face that Jammu and Kashmir was not a settled issue and that if they wished to end alienation in Kashmir and befriend Pakistan, the Government of India had no other option but to settle the issue as per the wishes of Kashmiri people and engage with Pakistan to harmonize India-Pakistan relations. Remember, by political solution he meant a system that would pander to the sentiments of a particular constituency and under which the people of Jammu province and Ladakh region and all the religious and ethnic minorities would have no say whatever in the governance of the state.
That Omar Abdullah this time avoided any reference to the so-called Kashmir problem was a clear indication that the emergence of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of the country has had its impact on him.
Omar Abdullah is known for making controversial statements and he makes controversial statements with a purpose: To keep the pot boiling in Kashmir so that the process of polarization goes on. Why did Omar Abdullah not rake up the so-called Kashmir issue in the presence of Narendra Modi? The answer is simple and straight and the answer is that New Delhi has dramatically turned very strong under Narendra Modi. It's not a coalition Government that he can browbeat, threaten, exploit and blackmail. Nor is Narendra Modi made of the stuff of which Manmohan Singh was made of. Things have changed and it augurs well for the future of the state and the nation as a whole. |
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