Step carefully,Omar

Congresss over-reach is threatening the new coalition.

It is not yet a month since Omar Abdullah took over as chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir,amid much hope and expectation; and yet it appears the honeymoon is over. In his haste to stitch up a coalition with the Congress he gave up a massive chunk of the new cabinet. With 17 legislators,Congress has 13 ministries,while the NC gets 12. The Congress,meanwhile,seems to have forgotten the lessons of the past; it was hoped that the party had moved beyond its tradition of using every weapon in its arsenal to ensure its direct influence over the seat of power in Jamp;K the reason that Sheikh Abdullah was toppled and jailed in 1953 and his son Farooqs government was dismissed three decades later when he didnt concede enough space to the Congress.

For the countrys oldest and biggest political party,Jamp;K should have been a much larger issue than routine electoral politics. It has an insignificant number of Lok Sabha seats and thus very little impact on the electoral tally at the national level; so,for a national party,there are many more important things at stake than simple electoral gain. It is ironic that narrow thinking led the Congress to be pivotal in creating a regional and communal divide within the state to gain local political mileage which divide now benefits the BJP,which has played such dangerous and opportunistic politics that it swept the recent polls through Jammus Hindu heartland. The Congress,meanwhile,has already started playing soft Hindutva in Jammu to try and regain its base.

Outmanoeuvring the Congress in the power game is difficult,as even the shrewd Mufti found out post-2002. In 2008,the Congress changed alliance partners dumping PDP and choosing NC but returned to its myopic party-centric politics. Omar Abdullah ,the new face,has been given two tainted Congressmen as senior cabinet ministers. Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chands name was spoken of in connection with the Srinagar sex abuse scandal,which the previous administration didnt sufficiently pursue under Congress pressure. This newspaper exposed a massive scandal in staff recruitment for the legislative assembly a process under then-Speaker Tara Chand. Then-Education Minister Peerzada Sayeed was asked to resign allegedly for taking bribes from a sitting legislator. Sayeed is back as education minister. Earlier,the government had initiated an investigation into his role in the rural electrification scam a major case of embezzlement of public funds.

The acceptance of the tainted ministers in the new cabinet by Omar Abdullah is,however,not the only surrender. The Congress holds almost every important ministry: urban development,public works,tourism and health. It is an irony that the NC could only reach the 28 mark because of the sweep in Srinagar where it won all eight constituencies but the partys Srinagar stalwart,Ali Mohammad Sagar,has been made rural development minister. Neither will Srinagar get sufficient attention nor will Sagar be particularly interested in rural Jamp;K. Jamp;Ks apple-growers are essentially concentrated in north Kashmirs Baramulla-Sopore-Rafiabad belt and Shopian in South Kashmir. But Omars horticulture minister is from Jammus Kathua district. The Valley is dependent on tourism,and is the face of Jamp;K to tourists; but the tourism minister is a Congressman from Ladakh.

Apart from these serious handicaps,Omar Abdullahs style of governance too has come in for some criticism within the first few weeks. Unable to resist the Congress or his own partys old guard,he has brought in an educated young businessman-turned-legislator as his political adviser with minister of state status. Though a political advisers job is primarily to be the interface between the public and the chief minister,his work seems more administrative than political. Yes,the individual in question has been an important part of Omars core team,and his media manager for several years. And it is understandable that Abdullah wants people he trusts close but for the NC,he remains an outsider and is not part of the party structure. This appointment,and others such,have started giving rise to disillusionment within the NC.

Although it is very early to assess the functioning of the Omar Abdullah led the NC-Congress coalition government,there is an immediate need for a serious introspection by both the Congresss top leadership and by Omar so that these initial missteps do not cause faith in the new government to falter. It has been after decades that Jamp;K has witnessed an overwhelming peoples participation in the elections,which were peaceful and fair. A failure for this coalition government will have consequences more serious than ever.

muzamil.jaleelexpressindia.com

Muzamil Jaleel

Muzamil Jaleel is a Deputy Editor at The Indian Express and is widely recognized as one of India’s most authoritative voices on Jammu & Kashmir, national security, and internal affairs. With a career spanning over 30 years, he has provided definitive on-the-ground reportage from the heart of the Kashmir conflict, bearing witness to historic political transitions and constitutional shifts. Expertise and Investigative Depth Muzamil’s work is characterized by a rare combination of ground-level immersion and high-level constitutional analysis. His expertise includes: Conflict & Geopolitics: Decades of reporting on the evolution of the Kashmir conflict, the Indo-Pak peace process, and the socio-political dynamics of the Himalayan region. Constitutional Law: Deep-dive analysis of Article 370 and Article 35A, providing clarity on the legal and demographic implications of their abrogation in 2019. Human Rights & Accountability: A relentless investigator of state and non-state actors, uncovering systemic abuses including fake encounters and the custodial death of political workers. International War Reporting: Beyond South Asia, he provided on-the-spot coverage of the final, decisive phase of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009. Landmark Exposés & Impact Muzamil’s reporting has repeatedly forced institutional accountability and shaped national discourse: The Kashmir Sex Scandal (2006): His investigative series exposed a high-profile exploitation nexus involving top politicians, bureaucrats, and police officers, leading to the sacking and arrest of several senior officials. Fake Encounters: His reports blew the lid off cases where innocent civilians were passed off as "foreign terrorists" by security forces for gallantry awards. SIMI Investigations: He conducted a massive deep-dive into the arrests of SIMI members, using public records to show how innocuous religious gatherings were often labeled as incriminating activities by investigative agencies. The Amarnath Land Row: Provided critical context to the 2008 agitation that polarized the region and altered its political trajectory. Over the years, Muzamil has also covered 2002 Gujarat riots, Bhuj earthquake, assembly elections in Bihar for Indian Express. He has also reported the peace process in Northern Ireland, war in Sri Lanka and national elections in Pakistan for the paper. Awards and Fellowships His "Journalism of Courage" has been honored with the industry's most prestigious accolades: Four Ramnath Goenka Awards: Recognized for J&K Reportage (2007), On-the-Spot Reporting (2009), and Reporting on Politics and Government (2012, 2017). Kurt Schork Award: From Columbia University for international journalism. Sanskriti Award: For excellence in Indian journalism and literature. IFJ Tolerance Prize: For his empathetic and nuanced reporting in South Asia. International Fellowships: Served as a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and worked with The Guardian, The Observer, and The Times in London. He has also received Chevening fellowship and a fellowship at the Institute of Social Studies, Hague, Netherlands. Professional Presence Current Location: New Delhi (formerly Bureau Chief, Srinagar). Education: Master’s in Journalism from Kashmir University. Social Media: Follow him for field insights and rigorous analysis on X (Twitter) @MuzamilJALEEL. ... Read More