Omar Abdullah completes four years in office

Omar Abdullah completed four years in office as a Chief Minister of the Jammu and Kashmir state on Saturday. He was sworn in as the 11th Chief Minister of the state on January 5, in 2009.

Omar (39, at that time) had become the youngest ever Chief minister of any Indian state. But three years later in 2012, Akhilesh Yadav, took the position when he was elected Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, at the age of 38.
Omar Abdullah had generated a hope and optimism, particularly in the youngsters in the Valley as this scion of Abdullah’s came in power just a few months after the civil unrest in the Valley, on the Amarnath Shrine Board land row in the summers of 2008, which claimed more than sixty lives including one senior separatist leader Shaikh Abdul Aziz.

The initial four years of his total five-year-term has proved very chaotic for the Chief Minister of this troubled state. His first challenge came in the shape of a tragedy when two young women in the Shopian district of the Valley were mysteriously found dead in May 2009. The incident caused violent unrest in the Valley as the locals blamed that the women had been raped before being murdered by the men in the uniform. It took several months for Omar’s government to take control of the situation.

Again in 2010, the complete year was upsetting for him as the Valley saw a mass agitation after the killing of a young boy by the teargas shell, fired by the police in Srinagar city. The incident triggered violent protests and killings in the Valley. More than 100 people, mostly teenagers were killed during the 2010 unrest.
 
In one of his recent remarks on the 2010 agitation the tech-savvy Chief Minister wrote: “I made the mistake of not being seen or heard in the summer of 2010 when the trouble first started. I wish my mistake had been learnt from. But I dare say the moment when these youngsters could have been engaged was before the rowdy element hijacked the protests & teargas flew.”

In 2011, the mysterious death of a senior worker of his party, at the residence of Chief Minister was also a troublesome incident for Omar as it was widely alleged that the Party worker was actually beaten to death by Omar’s security men.

The one-man former Supreme Court Justice (retired) H.S. Bedi Commission, which probed the incident, recently exonerated Chief Minster, as the Commission report said, "The death of Haji Syed Mohammad Yousuf was caused by myocardial infarction (heart attack)... and that no suspicious circumstances can be spelt out." Bedi Commission was like a smooth wave of fresh air for Omar Abdullah as his political rivals frequently used to accused the Chief Minister for ‘Killing his own party worker’.

It was not only the political career of Omar Abdullah which made him upset during all these years. His personal life too did not prove smooth due to some happenings. One of these happenings was the separation of Omar from his wife. Omar Abdullah and his wife Payal Nath got separated after 17 years of their marriage in 2011.

It is not that every thing was depressing during last four years of Omar Abdullah’s rule. He did several commendable things during these years particularly on developmental front.

Just to name a couple of positive thing in Omar’s governance, Panchayat Raj elections and improvement in the security scenario of the state are among the admirable things of past four years of Omar-led coalition government in the state. Panchayat polls were held in 2011 after the gap of 30 years. In this strife torn state 4,128 panchayats, with 29,719 panchs and 4,130 sarpanchs were elected in a much hyped polls in which 79 per cent registered voters (or roughly 5.07 million inhabitants) participated.
 
It was only Omar Abdullah’s government which made Srinagar almost a ‘bunker free city’ after more than two decades of turmoil. Almost all the security bunkers have been removed from the city and dozens of buildings under the occupation of security forces have been evacuated, fulfilling a long pending demand of the people.

To be concise, past four years have been full of hectic activities for Omar Abdullah and perhaps that is the reason that the large portion of his hair has grown gray during all these years.

On the completion of four years in his office Omar Abdullah thanked people of the state saying, "Thank you … to the people of J&K for their faith, support and participation in moving the state towards a peaceful and prosperous future,"
 
In an advertisement issued by the department of information Omar added, "Four years ago, with hope in our hearts, we pledged to bring peace, prosperity and progress to the state. The journey has been long but we have moved forward because of you, the people of J&K".