Though it is an irrefutable fact is that Farooq Abdullah the three time former Chief Minister of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state and the incumbent parliament member from Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency is as unpredictable as the power politics itself is but unfortunately his style of working is more responsible for the downgrading of Jammu & Kashmir from a glorious state of yesteryears to a union territory than the failures of his several contemporaries in Kashmir’s mainstream politics. Even before the day Late Sheikh Abdullah choose him his successor, many key eye watchers of repute within and outside Jammu & Kashmir had contested his selection for the top job in National Conference and the views so expressed decades ago by many eye watchers within and outside Jammu & Kashmir have been proved beyond doubt. The irrefutable fact is that though Farooq Abdullah dancing at the recent marriage ceremony of the granddaughter of Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amrinder Singh in Chandigarah is absolutely no surprise for millions of people in Jammu & Kashmir who have seen him enjoying pillion riding more than discharging his duties as Chief Minister of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state immediately after the death of his father late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah way back in 1983, but what shocked the people of Kashmir to see Farooq Abdullah dancing at the marriage ceremony of Captain Amrinder Singh’s daughter is the fact that instead of mourning the downgrading of Jammu & Kashmir from a glorious state of yesteryears’ to a union territory and his own seven month long house detention the three time former Chief Minister does not stop entertaining himself at musical shows and religious places of the other communities the time when the people he ruled in Jammu & Kashmir wanted him to focus on restoration of their distinct political identity and popular rule.
Had Farooq Abdullah been serious about the restoration of the distinct political identity of the people of Jammu & Kashmir and as well as the early restoration of popular rule in Jammu & Kashmir he would have preferred to spend his time with his lawayers in devising the future course over the petitions filed by his party against the scrapping of article 370 and article 35 A and J&K Reorganisation Act 2019 in the supreme court of the country.
For power Farooq Abdullah himself as Chief Minister is responsible for extending many key central laws to Jammu & Kashmir the implementation of which was neither required nor sought by the previous central governments and as such he by the dint of his actions has already hollowed the article 370 and article 35 A that guaranteed special status to erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state. While his father late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah is the architect of land grants act questioned by many revenue and legal experts on many controversial counts, Faooq Abdullah himself as Chief Minister is responsible for the introducing the Roshni Land Act which was used by his successors as a weapon to change the system of land allotments for development projects into a non stop process of illegal land acquisitions and encroachments. While the father and son duo are responsible for messing up the process of land acquisitions and encroachments in Jammu & Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah is today questioning the scraping of article 370 and article 35 A without talking about his own role in reducing the land rights of his own people as Chief Minister of the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state. Had Farooq Abdullah been serious about the restoration of the distinct political identity of the people of Jammu & Kashmir and as well as the early restoration of popular rule in Jammu & Kashmir he would have preferred to spend his time with his lawayers in devising the future course over the petitions filed by his party against the scrapping of article 370 and article 35 A and J&K Reorganisation Act 2019 in the supreme court of the country.
