Pot calling kettle black

Former chief minister and National Conference working president Omar Abdullah has, as opposition leader, an undeniable right to censure the incumbent PDP-BJP coalition government in the state for the wrongs it has been committing with the people of the state. In a democracy, the opposition’s role is that of a watchdog—to keep eye on the wrong doings of the government and censure it wherever necessary in the interest of common people. So when he calls the Mahbooba Muft-led state government ‘anti-people and anti-Kashmir’, he is simply making a statement of the fact. He accused chief minister Mahbooba Mufti of having “broken all records of atrocities, treachery and ruthlessness”. But what is surprising is the moral position Omar Abdullah takes in scolding the government. He seems to be drawing relationship between morality and politics by accusing rather abusing PDP for going unscrupulous in the quest for political power. That way Omar Abdullah made a case of purity for himself and his party. But it does not need one to be a literary genius to understand the mockery of self-advertised purity Omar Abdullah has tried to put on display. Omar Abdullah, as chief minister, himself presided over a year of unrest with more than 120 civilian killings in 2010. But he is little ready to own the blame for what happened in his time. He tried to put a small price on 120 deaths that took place in his government by stating that nearly a hundred youth were mowed down in the recent unrest and hundreds more blinded and handicapped. One is within one’s rights to ask Omar Abdullah did he accept the responsibility for what happened in his time. If yes, can he please tell the people what he did to make up his faults? Accepting responsibility does not mean issuing a statement in the press. It means identifying the genesis of the issue, working on them to avoid its repetition in future, making accountable the state organs responsible for the trouble, trying and punishing the guilty and compensating the victims to their best satisfaction. One would like to know from Omar Abdullah what he did other than maintaining criminal silence. Omar Abdullah ordered probe into 17 killings that took place in the first seven days of the unrest saying the probe would be completed within 15 days. Eight years have passed since then, the probe was never completed. The forces, which directly operated under Omar Abdullah (as home minister) went on with their sport for killing and shot dead 103 more persons besides maiming and torturing 10,000 others. As many as 7000 were arrested and lodged in jails and torture cells. This was under his government that underage boys—between 14-17 years—were booked and jailed under Public Safety Act. Omar Abdullah gave free hand to his police and CRPF to bring calm in the streets. The reign of terror that followed forced the Supreme Court lawyer and one-time BJP leader Ram Jethmalani to issue a damning statement against his (Omar Abdullah) government by comparing it with Nazi outfit, which has unleashed a reign of lawlessness in the valley under police raj. One can say it with full authority and certainty that if the CRPF and policemen involved in mass killings in 2010 had been held accountable and punished for their murderous actions, there could have been a hold-bar on 2016 killings. The police and CRPF took it as a license to kill people with impunity, and what happened in 2016 and what is happening now is in continuation of 2010. That in no way lessens the sins of the present government. When humans fail to give justice, natural justice is certain to come.