Wearing ‘crown of thorns’ J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, heading a coalition Govt on Sunday completed five years in office. Omar was sworn in as the youngest Chief Minister of the State on January 5, 2009 after National Conference emerged single largest political party with 28 seats.
To mark the occasion no formal ‘show of strength’ was organised by the State Government. It is learnt due to ongoing ‘tug of war’ the alliance partners — Congress and National Conference — had avoided to share the dais and ‘unitedly’ count their achievements of five years of rule. The Government, however, chose to highlight its list of achievements through full page advertisements in the local and vernacular media.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, while attending a function organised by the Kashmiri pandit organisation in Jammu, himself clarified he avoided holding different functions to mark the occasion. Interestingly no other National Conference or Congress Minister was present on the occasion. No separate functions were organised either in the party offices of Congress and National Conference unlike other occasions. During the year Omar faced numerous challenges in office and faced litmus test.
Violent clashes in Kishtwar and Ramban tested his administrative prowess while dealing with the issue of revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act from certain peaceful districts of the State tested his political astuteness. He was cornered by the Congress and representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions over failure of his Govt to implement the 73rd and 74th amendments of the constitution of India aimed at empowering these grass root institutions.
Provincial President of the National Conference in Kashmir, also a close aide of Omar, Nasir Aslam Wani accompanied him to the venue of the function. Speaking on the occasion Omar also ruled out the possibility of early Assembly polls in the State as was speculated in the media. “One full year is ahead of us. We will make all out efforts to pass the Temple Shrine bill to fulfill the long pending demand of the Kashmiri pandit community” Omar said.