Omar Abdullahs- the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir- favorite weapon of choice to reach out to people and make statements is tweeting blurbs. Omar , after the death of Mufti Sayyeed came out to the defence of Mehbooba Mufti: he castigated the BJP for harrying Mehbooba and suggested allowing Mehbooba to grieve. More recently, Omar tweeted again and wrote:
You have a grief stricken daughter who isn’t ready to take over just yet. All the other stuff is well crafted smoke & mirrors, nothing more,” Omar wrote on Twitter. He said there was “so much needless speculation about what is & isn’t happening in the PDP or BJP and all of it coming from people who don’t have a clue”.
Both tweets are revealing; Omar stands out as a good human being. He wants his grief stricken opponent to mourn, derides his political opponents for foisting politics upon Mehbooba at a time of grave loss and then Omar chides people for speculating on Government formation again understanding Mehboobas emotional universe and world these days. All this is well and fine. Omar deserves accolades and praise for his reflexive commitment to human and humane values. But what about Omars political perspicacity?
If we can infer from Omars tweets and his public statements and stances, Omar comes out smelling of roses. However, when it comes to politics, things do not seem to be as rosy. Consider the tweets he made post Muftis death. Omar appears to betray a frame of mind that is decent and nice but at the same time naïve. Historically and contemporarily, politics does not appear to respect mortality or even immortality. The classic example of Julius Caeser springs to mind here. Caesar was murdered by his admirer and even confidante, Brutus along with other conspirators. And politics was played and intrigues resorted to soon after Caesars death. Examples galore -historical and contemporary- testify to politics as a domain which attaches little import to death and grief.
More pertinently perhaps Omar does not appear to know or chooses to gloss over the fact that the people of Kashmir have been immensely cynical of politics and the political class. Political figures are viewed with suspicion; whatever they do or say is viewed and then smashed by hammers of cynicism. This explains why people looked askance at Mehboobas public display of emotion at her fathers grave or even when Omar broke down in the Assembly a couple of years ago. People in Kashmir are thoroughly disenchanted with politicians and the political class; the distaste is rather visceral but it is not reflexive in the sense of being impulsive. Political uncertainty, opportunistic behavior by most of the political class and corruption of public life, has rendered the people cynical and desultory.
What then explains Omars beliefs and world view?
Omar has grown up in a world where almost everything is straight; his world view appears to have been forged in topflight and polished domains. But the world is neither straight nor as polished as Omar would like to think. It is crooked and almost Hobbesian and Darwinian- wherein the survival of the fittest is the norm rather than the exception. In this dog eat dog world, people take recourse to ungainly and immoral or even amoral behavior as means to their respective ends. This is not a blanket assertion and condemnation. Yes: there are good people in the world too but as the cliché goes: nice guys finish last. Omar, needs to get realistic about the objective reality that obtains in Kashmir and tailor his politics accordingly without losing his sense and idea of morality and goodness. For this, he needs to take to the streets-both in a figurative and in a literal sense. His word view and beliefs may have been forged in citadels of elite morality and ethics but his politics should be informed by the street and the pulse of the street. A sanitized and neat world view is great but in the rough and tumble of politics, to twist a phrase, there are a hundred shades of grey. Will this happen? All we can see is: we shall see.
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