Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah turned50 on Tuesday and spent the day at Hari Nivas here where he has been underdetention for the last seven months.
Detained under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA), Omarhad a quiet day in the sub-jail not far from his residence on Gupkar road. Hismother, sisters and some other members of the family met him for sometime inthe afternoon.
His father and five time chief minister Farooq Abdullah,himself a PSA detainee, could not meet his son on his special day.
Both Abdullahs have been in detention since August 5following abrogation of special status and bifurcation of erstwhile state intotwo union territories.
On his 50th birthday, the Twitter handle of Omar saw amessage from his sister Sara Abdullah Pilot who said she would be temporarilymanaging the account.
“Temporarily looked after by Sara Abdullah Pilot tokeep track of my brother’s mentions & DMs. Will restore the a/c to itsoriginal owner as soon as he’s out,” the bio on Omar’s account reads.
Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi,actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha and NCP Lok Sabha member Supriya Sulewere among those who greeted Omar on his birthday on social networking site.
Omar has grown a long salt and pepper beard and is almostunrecognisable judging by a couple of photographs that have surfaced on socialmedia in recent weeks triggering mostly anger and anguish from netizens. Thepictures showed him smiling in a snow-covered jacket and sporting an unkemptgreyish beard.
The Supreme court is hearing a petition of Sara Pilotchallenging Omar’s detention under the PSA. The hearing is slated for nextweek.
The political career of Omar began at the age of 28 when hebecame a Lok Sabha and was youngest minister inducted in Atal BihariVajpayee-led Cabinet in 2000 when he was appointed Minister of State forexternal affairs and later as commerce.
Omar, who was the chief minister of the state from 2009 to2014, rose to fame in 2008 with his famous five-minute speech at Parliamentwhen he, despite being in opposition, supported the Indo-US nuclear deal.
“I am a Muslim and I am an Indian,” he said.”And I see no distinction between the two. I don’t know why should I fearthe nuclear deal. It is a deal between the two countries which, I hope, willbecome two equals in the future,”
Omar had said and warned that the enemy of Indian Muslimswas not America or deals like these.
Surprisingly, the PSA dossier and grounds for his detentionserved on him late on February 6 last month accused him of having”considerable influence” over people including ability to get votersduring poll boycott calls and potential for diverting energies of public forany cause.
Ironically, the fact that he was able to convinceelectorates to vote in huge numbers even during the peak of militancy and pollboycotts has been mentioned in the dossier prepared by the police to detain himunder the PSA.
The grounds also mention his comments on social networkingsites to instigate common people against the decision on 370 and 35-A which hadthe potential of disturbing public order.
However, the police have neither mentioned any of Omar’ssocial media posts in the dossier nor in the order for grounds of hisdetention.
“To the people of Kashmir, we don’t know what is instore for us…….stay safe and above all please stay calm,” was the lastfew tweets of Omar before he was taken to Hari Nivas for preventive detention.