Be serious

Fortunately,I will not have to spend 90 per cent of my time on security related issues. Instead,we can focus on governance, said Omar Abdullah,as he took charge as the youngest ever chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Confident and competent-seeming,Abdullah was seen as someone who had inherited a new set of circumstances if not entirely scraped clean of conflict,the state was definitely more willing to invest faith in the political process.

A year-and-a-half later,he finds his promises flung back at him as the Valley seethes in protest after a series of covert killings and open confrontations between security forces and stone-pelting protesters. But Omar Abdullah,whose impassioned speech in Parliament brought him such welcome attention,has been striking in his inability to show empathy and leadership when it matters most. When news of the violence came,he was away in Gulmarg. He dashed in,quickly replaced the Srinagar SSP,and returned to his holiday. Under pressure,he retains too casual a touch,and tends to focus on sloppy fixes. As revealed in the Shopian incident,the CMs idea of crisis management is to hit out blindly at the police rather than leading a patient and thorough investigation. Even more glaring is his tendency to process and assimilate events through the lens of his own personal glory. When a PDP leader accused him of being involved in the sex scandal that rocked Srinagar,Abdullah impetuously offered to resign,claiming he could not tolerate a blot on his image. As crisis after crisis tested him,hes come across as childishly self-absorbed even now he has to be reminded by the home ministry to visit the strife-torn areas. He has done little to counter the impression that he is more comfortable schmoozing and networking in Delhi than getting down to the slow administrative slog in the state. Even now,he presents this turn of events as a political and personal setback,as though the turmoil that has beset the state was merely a spot on his own report card,instead of radiating the reassurance the people need that this spell of trouble will be competently dealt with. Of course,it doesnt help that his opponents are even less credible Mehbooba Mufti pettishly refused to turn up for the all-party meeting.

Either way,Jammu and Kashmirs well-being is too important to be left to Omar Abdullahs trial-and-error methods. Perhaps,as he privately works out his own identity struggles,it would be sensible to ask Farooq Abdullah to play a bigger role in the state.