‘Where is Sheikh’s Naya Kashmir?’

The irony was reflected in the composition of the crowd of NC delegates. The traditional support base of the party has always been Kashmir but today non-Kashmiri delegates outnumbered the locals. According to police records, among a total of around 9,000 party delegates, 4,539 belonged to Jammu province. The rest included a sizeable number from Leh and Kargil districts of Ladakh.

They waved red party flags with the NC’s poll symbol, the plough, shouted ‘long live Omar Abdullah’, clapped hysterically when the Chief Minister hugged his son after the coronation and many wept when he burst into tears as he bid farewell to the party workers.

Our anonymous NC worker spoke after much coaxing and cajoling. ‘‘Being an NC activist is a curse these days. It will immediately earn you a death sentence. I am an old man and I can’t get out of my decades-long loyalty to Sheikh Sahib and his party. He was our leader and his party was our party. I can’t abandon it and that’s why I am here today though it can cost me my life,’’ he said. His fears nearly came true when militants made an abortive attempt to disrupt the function by firing two rifle grenades towards the venue. However, the grenades landed some 500 metres away from the main gate of the stadium.

Passions rose right at the beginning of the function when the NC flag was unfurled followed by the song that many among the delegates had grown up with — Ooncha rahay hal wala jhanda — better known as Kashmir’s own anthem. Many in the audience lent their voice.

A flood of nostalgia swept through the crowd when NC general secretary and Sheikh Nazir recalled the party’s past, its struggle and its achievements like the revolutionary land reforms that demolished the hegemony of landlords and empowered a majority of the Kashmiri paesants and the legendary Sheikh Abdullah’s ‘Naya Kashmir’ vision for the state.The stage was also abuzz with activity. Omar’s two sons, Zamir Abdullah and Zahir Abdullah, dressed in white shalwar kameez, were running around holding National Conference flags. And as Farooq Abdullah was about to bid farewell to his party workers, Zamir walked to the dais and passed on the NC flag to him.

Earlier, it was 1:03 pm — Omar was delivering his presidental address — when two massive blasts were heard. This, however, failed to create any panic; the venue had been encircled by several rings of security and preventive arrests made. The Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Range, K Rajendra, said ‘‘we knew they (militants) will make such an attempt and we had sanitised the entire area in a radius of around a kilometre from the site of the function. They could have never managed to come closer.’’