Prisoner of silence?

Ever since the two made their debut in politics, they have been subject to unavoidable comparisons, some fair and some rather unfair. Their actions, performances as public representatives, as leaders of opposition, as youth icons have been put under a fair bit of scrutiny. Which one of them edged the other one out or which one of them came-out way ahead is a matter of perspective or perhaps there are many more chapters to go as far as this story is concerned. Only time will tell.

These inevitable comparisons gathered steam when Mehbooba Mufti decided to take on Omar Abdullah from the Srinagar Parliamentary seat during the 1999 election to the Lok Sabha. While the result did not surprise many, Mehbooba still managed to score a point, which is probably what her father had in mind, when he decided to field her against Sheikh Abdullah’s grandson from a seat the Abdullahs had always dominated while whatever presence the Muftis had gained was primarily restricted to South Kashmir. Even as Omar won the election, Mehbooba still scored a point. She was suddenly seen as a possible competitor and alternative to Sheikh Abdullah’s grandson. The land was fertile and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had sown the seed. While Omar had made a helicopter landing, one he cannot be blamed for, Mehbooba had started working her way up.

   

Quite a few Assembly elections have gone by, many Parliament elections have come and gone, both Omar and Mehbooba have had stints as Chief Ministers and both have had a fair share of difficulties while dealing with the politically sensitive State, now reduced to a Union Territory.

The ruling BJP, which has been in business with both of them suddenly found out that the two of them (besides other leaders) were a threat to the Public Safety and therefore needed to be put under detention. The same BJP which was in government with Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP sometime ago and it is the same party with whom Omar Abdullah was a minister in 2002.

While the BJP government at the centre decided to strip Jammu & Kashmir of all privileges, it made sure that a heavy final blow was struck by reducing the State to a Union Territory as if inflicting a final act of some long due revenge. Strange reasons were given, the most common being that J&K had faced an awful lot of corruption over the years and that the ‘two families’ had destroyed the State. Whatever side of the political divide one may stand on, the ‘two families’ have only been governing the state through legitimate means, let the government of India contest that fact and say that they have been presiding over farce elections in the State o J&K and we shall take the discussion forward. As far as corruption goes, that is to be dealt with under the existing legal framework, as would be done in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh. Should we be reducing States into Union Territories on allegations of corruption, India would not have a single State left.

Omar and Mehbooba, were both put in detention. The official reasons for their detention kept swinging between absurd and ridiculous. While Mehbooba was put under detention for being her ‘Daddy’s girl’, Omar Abdullah was put under detention since he seemingly enjoyed some sway over the masses, a charge every public man should be proud of. It was widely understood that the central government feared that the two of them could whip up enough support to cause discomfort to them.

The amendment of Article 370, doing away with Article 35-A and demoting the State to a Union Territory happened in August 2019 and it was immediately thereafter that scores of political leaders from the valley were either detained or stopped from entering the valley. It was only after about eight months that Omar Abdullah was released. A month and a half after his release, we still see no signs of Mehbooba Mufti being released. While the reasons, if one may call them so, for their detention are now well known, what led to Omar Abdullah being released and Mehbooba being under continued detention is still unknown.

Even if one were to go by the government’s version, the two had been detained in ‘anticipation’ of a crime, the ‘anticipated crime’ being speaking-up/garnering support against the steps announced on the 5th of August, 2019. Now that Omar Abdullah finds himself out of  detention that he should never have faced in the first place, one cannot resist from dwelling into the ‘how and why’ of it. The government’s stand has been unrelenting thus far. Do they suddenly believe that Omar Abdullah has lost his ‘magic’ to sway the masses? How are they so certain about his silence now? If one had doubts that Omar will not decide to take-up the issue regarding Article 370, the air was cleared right after his release. Omar Abdullah is one of the few politicians in India who have been expressing their opinions on every issue, howsoever big or small on Twitter. He came out and tweeted how the issue of Article 370 and 35-A had been unfairly dealt with. This was a line he was expected to take, but the capitulation came immediately when he announced, by way of another tweet, that he had been wrong in tweeting about the 370 issue and twitter was not the forum for raising the issue. Omar Abdullah saying that made no sense, the man loves his social media and his views on all National and International issues are usually reported in the media not by way of press statements or media briefings but by way of his tweets.  One wonders what forum is the Former Chief Minister, son of Dr. Farooq Abdullah and grandson of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah waiting for.  Omar Abdullah owes an explanation to the people, should he still consider himself in public life. His continued silence under the garb of waiting for an ‘appropriate forum’ will only strengthen the belief that he, on behalf of his party, has decided to forget and let-go what has happened – a line that him and his party have a right to take. What they owe to the people is transparency. Playing the waiting game won’t help, we know what that means.

There has to be a distinguishing factor that led to the release of Omar Abdullah and the continued detention of Mehbooba Mufti. Since Omar Abdullah has chosen to remain silent, one is inclined to believe that is the distinguishing factor – right there, ‘his silence’.  It seems while he may be a free man today, his thoughts continue to remain in ‘detention’.

Wasim Beg is Former Additional Advocate General (J&K)

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