Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah sits near a police barricade outside Parliament Street Police Station in New Delhi on July 20, 2026 after he was denied permission to protest at the Jantar Mantar.
| Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah descended onto New Delhi’s streets, in July, with his Cabinet in tow to press for restoration of J&K’s federal guarantees — he was denied permission to protest at the emblematic Jantar Mantar. The Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti, and Srinagar MP Ruhullah Mehdi spearheaded separate programmes in Delhi in the following days. If one had expected this line up of events in the capital to be a surreal moment of reclaiming Kashmir’s democratic space for dissent, one was not enthused. What was more prominently illustrated was the deep divisions within the Kashmiri leadership.After Omar Abdullah came to power in October 2024, he prudently focused on repairing ties with New Delhi. He had hoped that a calibrated navigation would be helpful in negotiating a respectable arrangement for J&K. But in Srinagar, Mr. Abdullah’s political opponents described his exploration of areas of agreement with New Delhi and the tailored camaraderie it entailed, as pusillanimous. They iterated that there couldn’t be a lesser political goal post in Kashmir than reversing the August 5, 2019 legislations that stripped the Himalayan region of its semi-autonomous status.While Kashmir’s right to dignity and respectable federal arrangement is non-negotiable, the way to realising it cannot be the daily whipping of a rather disempowered local government for not being combative enough. Though this resentment is received well in the echo canyons of people’s online lives, it serves no other purpose except to create a veneer of ideological supremacy for a few. The need of the hour for all of Gupkar’s politicians is to contemplate political unity even when grave disagreement simmers beneath the surface. The importance of political unity cannot be overlooked at a time when rest of India’s Opposition is palpably wary of involving itself in the Kashmir question.Nearly two years after the electorate turned out in impressive numbers to elect a local Government and upend the “bureaucratic apparatus” that had settled snugly in its absence, the unelected office of the Lieutenant Governor (LG) continues to wield significant power, heightening confusion. In a region with proximity to violence, it may express itself in a spatter of political dismissiveness: not just of the local government but of participatory democracy itself.Ensuring Kashmiri participation in elections has always been tricky. It is often the outcome of mainstream leaders’ penetrating patronage networks. Rural belts vote more briskly because people have dependence on local politicians, for amenities, and as protective shields against police arbitrariness.
