Omar Abdullah: Normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir post Article 370 abrogation is forced, not organic

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on February 27 that the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir is far from normal more than five years after Article 370 was abrogated. 

Abdullah said the normalcy in the Union Territory, as claimed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre, is not organic, but forced, citing instances in support of his argument.

"If what is happening in Jammu and Kashmir is organic, nothing like it. If it is driven out of fear, then you have a problem," Abdullah said during the Red Mike Dialogues in New Delhi on February 27. He was responding to a question on the recent reduction in shutdowns and separatist and militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, was abrogated in August 2019 during the previous BJP-led regime at the centre. Top BJP leaders have been attributing the abrogation of Article 370 to normalcy in the erstwhile state.

On February 24, speaking at a function in the national capital, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, “There is peace in Jammu and Kashmir, and this peace has to be permanent.”

Abdullah, however, disagreed. “Because you can only control a situation out of fear for a limited time.... If people (centre) believed that it was organic, then they wouldn't have closes Jamia Masjid in Srinagar and not allow Mirwaiz to take part in funeral prayers of his father-in-law. This is because they feared a law and order situation would break out. A law and order situation will break out when normalcy is not organic. It breaks out when normalcy is forced. And therefore, what you have in Jammu and Kashmir today is a forced normalcy,” Abdullah said.

The authorities on February 27, denied permission to Hurriyat chairman and Kashmir’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to lead the funeral prayers of his father-in-law at historic Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.

Mirwaiz Umar's Security Cover

Abdullah also cited Mirwaiz's CRPF cover as an indicator that the situation in the Union Territory is not normal.

“Mirwaiz's security is again an indicator that things are not normal (in Jammu and Kashmir). If you need to protect the Mirwaiz with CRPF, how can you claim normalcy?,” Abdullah asked.

Earlier this week, Abdullah faced backlash for his remark linking separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s CRPF security cover to the improved situation in the union territory after the abrogation of Article 370. On Thursday in New Delhi, Abdullah said his comments on Mirwaiz's security were misinterpreted.

Mirwaiz’s father Mohammad Farooq was killed on May 21, 1990, by unidentified gunmen at the city’s Mirwaiz Manzil. “It means that the threat to the Mirwaiz has increased and not decreased. It means the ability of militants to strike has gone up and not down," Abdullah said on Thursday.

"The fact that the Mirwaiz has to be protected by the same commandoes that protect your national leaders like the home minister, Rahul Gandhi and others, would suggest that the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir is far from normal. So yes, halaat badle hain, behtar huven hai who doosri baat hai (yes things have changed, but for good is another matter,” he said.

“And the fact that you need to protect Mirwaiz with CRPF would suggest that the situation has not improved. We did not need to give Mirwaiz CRPF protection when I was chief minister (previous term). We protected him with Jammu and Kashmir police. Had the situation declined so badly. And if it has, then give us security and law and order, we will bring it back to a point where Mirwaiz will not need a CRPF security cover,” Abdullah said.