On January 5, 2009 when Omar Abdullah had taken oath of office he not only became the youngest Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir but also remained focal point of media attention.
Close family friends, industry captains, bollywood celebrities and even political adversaries had converged in the newly opened Zorawar Singh Auditorium of Jammu university to witness historic oath taking ceremony.
Former Chief Minister and his father Dr Farooq Abdullah had even dedicated a famous song, “Papa Kahtain hain bada naam karega” to his dutiful son while wishing him all the luck for the most difficult job.
While occupying the 'hot seat' and running an alliance Government with the Congress party in the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir, Omar Abdullah experienced many ups and down in his 'tumultuous' political career.
He faced first litmus test when under his watch the State witnessed prolonged cycle of violence between 2009 (in the aftermath of Shopian rape and murder case) and 2010. Over 100 protesters were killed in sporadic incidents of stone pelting and several hundred were put behind bars to restore normalcy on ground zero.
Security forces had to resort to use to 'pellet' guns for the first time to control the rampaging mob on the streets of Srinagar especially in volatile downtown areas.
During his term in office, Omar even attempted to scale down the foot prints of the Indian army and revoke Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from peaceful districts of the region but failed to assert his authority even while chairing meetings of the Unified command. Union government at the helm of affairs, kept him in the 'waiting' mode. After promising 'moon' to the people of the state Omar could not do much to buy back power projects from NHPC. As his innings came to an end his report card was dotted with dark spots and was not 'impressive'.
After completing his six year long term in office when Omar Abdullah went to the electorate to seek reelection he faced crushing defeat at the hustings in December 2014.
The National Conference tally declined from 28 seats it won in 2008 to 15 in 2014. The party not only lost sizeable chunk of seats but its total vote share also witnessed steep decline.
As President of the party and head of the alliance Government Omar failed to fulfil the promise of restoration autonomy which remained high point of NC’s election manifestos since Indra — Sheikh Accord.
Sitting in the Opposition, Omar competed with the arch rival, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and also flirted with the idea of promoting 'soft separatism' to woo electorate. With BJP acquiring centre stage in the national politics, Omar choose to continue his friendship and alliance with youth congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
He also lost a perception war when he locked horns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi after propagating another lofty idea of reviving the posts of sadr-e-riyasat (president) and Prime Minister for Jammu & Kashmir.
A decade later, Omar Abdullah is struggling to spend time, all alone in his own company.Since August 5, 2019 he is under preventive political detention.
Barring close family members, no other visitors are allowed to meet him. Since August 5, only once a delegation of party leaders led by his close aide and provincial President, Jammu DS Rana called on him for about 30 minutes in the first week of October 2019. No other meeting with the party leaders fructified since then.