Examiner Bureau | Srinagar:
Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference president Sajad Gani Lone on Saturday questioned the political intent behind Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s protest in Srinagar on September 2 and his subsequent meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi two days later.
Lone described the sequence of events as a “theatre of the absurd”, questioning the timing of the protest and the subsequent meeting between Abdullah and Shah.
Referring to the developments of September 2, Lone said the National Conference and the BJP were both on the streets of Srinagar, apparently protesting against each other. He said visuals from the demonstrations showed senior leaders pushing through crowds, climbing onto vehicles and raising slogans.
“All the visuals conveyed assertiveness and defiance. For a moment even I thought that they may repeat the Gen Z protest of Delhi,” he said.
However, Lone said he was surprised by what followed on September 4, when Abdullah met Shah in New Delhi and presented him with a bouquet of flowers.
“I am in wonderment,” Lone said, questioning why the Chief Minister would participate in what he described as a show of protest in Srinagar if he was scheduled to meet the Union Home Minister in Delhi just two days later.
“If CM sahib had to pose with HM sahib on the 4th of September in Delhi, why indulge in the theatre of the absurd and do all the song and dance in Srinagar on the 2nd of September?” he asked.
Lone also questioned whether the political leadership was conscious of what he described as a contradiction, and whether such positioning undermined its own colleagues and the message being conveyed to the public.
He further criticised what he called the “systematic degradation” of the institution of protest in Kashmir, arguing that demonstrations had been reduced to symbolic political exercises.
“The institution of protest, which has ushered in economic and political revolutions worldwide, has been literally assaulted here in Kashmir and rendered unrecognisable. It has been relegated to photo ops in Kashmir,” he said.
Lone concluded by taking another swipe at the political leadership, saying, “Common sense it seems is not very common. Or it seems collectively we have little common sense to not understand what should not have been uncommon.”
