At Omar’s party, Centre told don’t play spoilsport

That the party would make a strong regional pitch was evident in the inaugural moments when a song called an ‘Address to the National Flag of Kashmir’ was rendered. It reminded the audience of the post-1953 days when the NC’s founder-leader Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was in prison and the party had launched a virtual separatist movement demanding a plebiscite in Kashmir.

Observers were, however, somewhat taken aback by Farooq’s tone that was quite harsh towards New Delhi as he warned both India and Pakistan to stop testing the patience of his party and the Kashmiri people endlessly. He equated the NC’s fight for autonomy with

India’s freedom struggle and linked it to restoration of peace in Kashmir. ‘‘Whatever efforts you make, peace will never return to J&K unless you restore autonomy to the state,’’ he said.

‘‘We will achieve our goal of autonomy even as you do whatever you (Centre) wish to do. But we will not take to guns and rather stick to the power of the ballot,’’ said Farooq.

Omar had some questions for Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee himself. Referring to his recent comment — reiterated in the latest Newsweek interview — that the Centre wished to know which article of the Constitution was a hurdle in the smooth functioning of the state government, Omar said ‘‘autonomy was not an issue related to the functioning of the state government. Autonomy is not a matter related to our minds but to our hearts. If every issue has to be related to the functioning of governments, then tell me how is the issue of Babri Masjid and Ram mandir related to government functioning?’’

Babri Masjid was one point on which Farooq didn’t spare his ally, the BJP. He said while the party was critical of Pakistan’s misdeeds in Kashmir, ‘‘we should also give a stern warning to this country (India)’’. He said that if they want India to live and keep Kashmir as a part of it, they have to carry people of all communities along. ‘‘They demolish Babri Masjid and (want to) build a Ram mandir…India did not attain freedom because of the struggle of one community or one religious group but because of people from all faiths,’’ he said.

He also criticised the BJP-led NDA for making hollow threats of war against Pakistan. ‘‘If I was the Defence Minister, I would have knocked their doors in Lahore. When you (Centre) do not have the guts, why do you resort to threats?’’ he asked.

Referring to the NC’s demand for scrapping the Indus Water Treaty, a bitter Farooq said, ‘‘If you have given them (Pakistan) our water and left us in the lurch, why don’t you hand over this land also to them?’’

Breaking down several times in the course of his speech, Farooq made it clear that he was going to hand over the chief ministership to his son and quit active politics though he seemed confused about his future role. ‘‘Omar will lead the party in the next elections and I am also shortly handing over the reins of the government to him,’’ he said. He didn’t make it clear if that could happen before the elections.

When he bid adieu to the emotionally charged gathering of his partymen, the usual Farooq Abdullah farewell of ‘Jai Hind’ was replaced by a couplet which translates as ‘unable to call the bitter venom, sweet juice, I have left both friends and foes unhappy’.

Omar spoke with passion but seemed to have toned down his rhetoric of the past few days. Responding to what he called the allegation of his party’s role in disrupting the peace talks between the Centre and the separatists, he said: ‘‘I am ready to provide my home for holding any such dialogue. We are not a hurdle and we will not become a hurdle in any such process.’’

Asking his party leadership and workers to wake up to the harsh ground realities if they wanted NC to remain in the centrestage of Kashmir’s politics, a candid Omar said: ‘‘Nowadays the entire Kashmiri youth nurses a suspicion against NC, and if we do not accept this reality and do an immediate retrospection, we will pay a heavy cost.’’

He reminded them that ‘‘those days were over when the people would shower votes on even an electricity pole in the name of the party.’’

Making the dichotomy in the father-and-son duo’s approach to politics and governance evident, Omar asked the party leaders not to make ‘‘false promises to people and stick to only the truth’’.

He said ‘‘today’s Kashmiri youth will ask you questions after you fail to stick to your promises. The mask of lie ultimately falls.’’