Srinagar, May 28: Omar Abdullah: The Burdens of Inheritance authored by the Greater Kashmir columnist and its’ online editor, Arjumand Hussain Talib, which talks about pressing issues confronted by the State was released here today.
 Praising the author, Dr Haseeb Drabu the Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Bank described the book as good development and said it has been written by professional journalist and it should be viewed accordingly.
 Dr Drabu said it has been written in a different genre, the genre in which a journalist engages people into thinking about issues confronted by them.
 Dr Drabu said he was huge admirer of youth. “I view them as catalysts of change,” he added. He said Omar was young chief minister and he appeals to youth and there was nothing wrong in the title of the book even though it is more about issues than the individual. He said though he disagrees with many points raised in the book, he considers it as “good effort.”
 “The author deserves appreciation as it has been written by Kashmiri journalist. It is good read and usually journalists here are not used to write longer pieces,” he said. Dr Drabu presided over the book release function.
 Disagreeing with earlier speakers who had raised questions about the title of the book saying it doesn’t jell with its’ contents, Dr Drabu said the book should be assessed on what the authors says. “It shouldn’t be assessed by what we expect from the author. We must evolve ourselves,” he said.
 Drabu said the book teaches us how a journalist engages himself to the day to day affairs. He said it was not necessary for journalist to give worm’s eye view of the pressing issues. “The birds’ eye view is enough,” he said.
 Talking about the power sector, Drabu said the book has devoted number of pages to hydropower. “I might disagree with many points,” he said. Drabu blames the institutional structure created by “us” for the lapses and cited example to further his argument. In 1954, Dr Drabu said, despite repeated requests by the Government of India for its monetary cooperation to exploit hydropower resources in the State sector; the then Chief Engineer was on record saying “we have enough.” He said there was need to look inwards.
 Drabu disagreed with author who earlier stated he has written the book for outsiders to present them Kashmiri perspective of the issues. He said there was no need to convince others, the need of hour was to convince “ourselves.” “I have to first convince myself of my case and then start campaign for it,” he said. He said the economy of the Jammu and Kashmir was viable. He said disagreed with earlier speakers who had said Omar Abdullah couldn’t be Narinder Modi who could challenge the Centre. “These are mere perceptions not based on an understaning of the context in which we operate. It is an issue of the civil society rather than that of leadership,” he said.
 Drabu had word of appreciation for publisher. He said most of the books published in Kashmir are shoddy having lot of typos. “But I didn’t find anything of that sort in this book,” he said.

Z.G Muhammad
 GK columnist Z.G Muhammad described the title of the book impressive. But he said it was too early to write on him. He said Omar was just 38 and if he live s to his grandfather’s age he has still 40 years ago. He said he had expected the book might be dwelling upon the person of Omar Abdullah and his political inheritance. However, Omer he said after flipping the pages of the book he found the book was talking about the contemporary political and economic issues.

Ajaz-ul-Haq
 GK columnist Ajaz-ul-Haq said, “what we normally come across are exorbitantly priced books not meant for general readers but for library shelves to gather dust on. This one has a hope of being reader’s book, not author’s.”
 He said CMs in Kashmir are to be assessed within the parameters they are allowed to work. “And this concession is to be given to Omar as well. One can’t really expect wonders. We can’t have a Narendra Modi in Kashmir who dares New Delhi to assert his position as the head of the state. Not because Modi is different from Omar, but because Gujarat is different from Kashmir,” he added.
 “We don’t mean that Omar didn’t want Kashmir to see a peaceful place. That will be too irrational a thought for who would like to invite trouble for himself. But the problem is he could not prove strong enough to register one example of justice. That alone could have made him young and different. Young he stayed different he could not be,” he said.

Prof Gul Muhammad Wani
 Noted political analysts, Prof Gul Muhammad Wani discussed at length the issue of state-center relations touched by the author in the book.
 He said the chief minister Omar Abdullah’s approach to the Srinagar-New Delhi relations could be looked from two dimensional way. “Ever since he came to power in state, he has maintained a balancing act as far as his two-track approach to autonomy is concerned.”
 Prof Gul said one approach was rooted in the National Conference’s history for struggle for greater autonomy and second approach is based on changing context of autonomy, politics and economy of the state and the south Asia region as whole.
 “It is here That Arjamund (author) talks of a different environment in which Omar Abdullah has to function compared to what his father (Farooq Abdullah) and grandfather (Sheikh Abdullah) had to confront with,” Prof Gul said. 

Author speaks
The author Arjumand Hussain Talib who is extensively traveled and has worked in ten countries in development sector said soon after the president Obama was elected as president of the United States he saw number of books on him in a airport during his travel. He said the idea came to him why not to write a book on issues confronted by Omar. He said over the years “we have developed tendency to negate vital issues while being preoccupied with the certain important political issues.” He said with this book he wants to make non-Kashmiris to look at the various issues in Kashmiri through Kashmiri view point.

DRABU HAILS WATTAN PUBLICATIONS 
Drabu had word of appreciation for Watan publications. He said most of the books published in Kashmir are shoddy having lot of typos and smudged prints. “But I didn’t find anything of that sort in this book,” he said.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 28 May 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 28 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 29 May 2010 00:00:00 IST