One month of Omar Abdullah govt: A tightrope walk that is coming under increasing strain

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has tried to make the best of a tough situation by implementing easier measures, so as to have something to show for his one-month tenure. And avoided touchy topics, despite public pressure, which could have pitted him against the Centre.

The National Conference (NC) got its big mandate on the back of an election manifesto that made a list of promises, covering emotional, economic and political grounds. But treading carefully since winning — too carefully, say its critics — the NC-led government appears willing to take it slow.

For example, while the party said during the campaign that seeking restoration of J&K’s special status would be one of the first decisions of its government, it started off with a resolution passed by the Omar Cabinet asking for the return of statehood to J&K. Of all the changes following the abrogation of Article 370 in J&K, this is the least contentious one, with even the BJP leadership promising that statehood would be restored as soon as possible.

The Omar government did pass a resolution in the Assembly later seeking the return of special status to J&K, but it was after rival PDP beat it to this by tabling its own version and getting the support of other parties. The NC’s critics also pointed out that the Omar government’s cautiously worded resolution did not make a specific mention of Article 370, instead called upon “the government of India to initiate dialogue with elected representatives of the people of Jammu and Kashmir for restoration of special status”, and went on to emphasise the need to “safeguard national unity” along with “the legitimate aspirations” of the people of J&K. According to them, this conciliatory note actually “normalised” the “unilateral” changes made by the Modi government on August 5, 2019.

The third significant – and again non-controversial – decision taken by the Omar government in its 45-day tenure was the return of the academic calendar to November to October cycle, from April to March.

The annual academic session in J&K always used to be from November to October, but a year ago, the LG administration changed this, seeking to bring it in step with the rest of the country. This was seen as impractical in the Valley given that the new schedule meant that schools would be closed for over three months for winter vacations just before the exams, and was viewed as part of the BJP agenda to “integrate” J&K with India.

Omar Abdullah during his oath taking ceremony. (Express photo by Shuaib Masoodi)

Students, parents and even teachers had opposed the change brought by the LG. The Omar government decision to go back to the old calendar has been welcomed across Kashmir and the winter zones of the Jammu region which had the same issue.

The Omar government has also practically restored the Durbar move practice by shifting the Assembly session and the ministry and department functioning to Jammu for the winter. The practice that earlier also included shifting of truckloads of documents plus hundreds of officials was officially discontinued in 2021.

During the elections, a major demand in the Jammu region was the restoration of the Durbar move, especially by traders who saw a surge in customers earlier during the winter months when the government apparatus moved to Jammu.

There is one post-Article 370 abrogation change that the Omar government is coming under increasing pressure to reverse, though. Following changes in J&K’s reservation policy, with more groups being brought under the ST quota, over 60% of government jobs and seats in government-run educational and professional colleges are now reserved for different categories.

Since the government started functioning, there have been two notices for recruitment, which have been met by protests by open merit candidates in both Jammu and Kashmir regions.

In its manifesto, the NC had promised to look into the reservation issue. However, it’s a political hot potato, and the NC is aware that all the major reserved category communities voted for it in the Assembly elections.

The Omar government has now formed a Cabinet sub-committee “to look into the grievances of both sides”.

Other poll promises made by the NC will also come to haunt it soon enough, including ensuring the release of those held post-August 2019 and sent to other states, simplification of the verification process for travel documents and government jobs, “unjust” terminations of government employees by the LG administration, plus provision of free electricity and one lakh jobs.

Already, the Omar government has tweaked the NC poll-time promise of 200 units of free electricity to every household. The LG’s address to the Assembly talked of “striving” to provide 200 units of free electricity to “deserving” (ostensibly BPL) families.

On the employment front, one lakh is a distant figure, with the government managing to refer some 600 posts as of now for recruitment.

Questioned recently over the problems regarding verification of documents faced by residents of the Valley, Omar said he was aware that the process “had been weaponized”, but that he could not do much for now as police came under the domain of the LG.

“As far as the release of prisoners is concerned, we have been trying from the first day that Jammu and Kashmir get its statehood back. There are some things which we can’t do being a UT,” Omar said, mentioning security, policing and law and order. Despite this, he added, “whenever we have a meeting with the police top brass, we have told them to review it, especially verification”. He hoped that “in the coming days, there will be more relief”.

The J&K Reorganisation Act that downgraded Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories after the abrogation of the special status gave the control of the Anti Corruption Bureau, judiciary, sanction for prosecution of government officials and law and order to the LG. The Raj Bhavan is also empowered to decide transfer of Indian civil service officers, and to frame business rules on the Cabinet’s advice for allocation of business to ministers.

NC spokesperson Imran Nabi said the government should not be judged just by the promises it had managed to keep. “Our biggest achievement is that there is at least psychological relief among the people. We are also moving step by step to make the commitments in our manifesto a reality, including 12 ‘guarantees’ and 25 promises.”

PDP MLA Waheed Para, who was the first to seek restoration of special status of J&K in the Assembly, said the NC government has “only made U-turns”. “They have normalised the 5th August (2019 decisions)… From restoration of the pre-1953 position (the original demand), they are down now to (piecemeal measures like) Durbar move and academic calendar.”