The proposed protest march by National Conference Working President Omar Abdullah to highlight PDP BJP Govt’s failure on completion of 100-days looks as if the opposition is desperate to remain under public gaze for its survival. The irony is that before these 100-days it was National Conference-Congress alliance at the helm of affairs for 12 years spanning consecutive two terms. Instead of owning the short comings the former CM adopting the ‘Gandhian formula’ of protest march is nothing but a political gimmick to gain attention. He had been critical of the present Govt and stating that BJP had surrendered Jammu’s interest to remain in power. One has to remind Omar Abdullah it was he who did not like the idea of IIT coming to Jammu and it was projected as loss to Kashmir as if Jammu is not part of the State called Jammu and Kashmir. It was during his rule the Union Budget allocation Rs 500 Cr was made for Kashmir’s displaced migrants with no similar allocation for the displaced persons of Jammu who moved out of Doda, Poonch, Nowshera, Rajouri areas on LoC. How can public memory be so short? This is not the end of the problems being faced by the people and neither this is an end to the issues they face. There are unending ones which saw no positive conclusions but were kept in the slot of regionalism. Mired by the stink of regional politics Jammu and Kashmir was never a cohesive unit for the sake of development and progress. Regional bias is prominent on both the sides of Banihal. For Kashmir-centric leaders the prime motive was to appease the local voters, keep them in good humour whether they are militants, separatist leaders or common people to pursue their political goals. On the other hand Jammu leaders are happy with subjugation and playing dedicated second fiddle. So Omar taking a protest march route is nothing but a political gimmick with making good photo ops for the media. This could be the first Abdullah who must have taken to streets like a common man to highlight demands.
