‘They only salute the rising Sun’
Tarun Upadhyay
JAMMU, Sept 10: Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and ex MP Omar Abdullah has said that biggest mistake politicians make is in assuming that officers are loyal to them. He has said officers are loyal to themselves only and to the chair they are occupying and that is what we have to expect.
“I think the mistake politicians make is in assuming that officers are loyal to us (politicians). They are not. They are loyal to themselves. They are loyal to the chair they are occupying. The officers will go wherever they see the direction of power is flowing,” he said.
Omar, in an interview with YouTube channel “UNFILTERED by Samdish” said though he had seen such behaviour of officers in his life and was not shocked when officers stopped turning to him after he was jailed.
” I was an ex CM in 2019 and I am an ex CM now also . I have never had so many officers come and wish me on Eid as they did after 2019 Parliamentary elections because they thought that I am going to be CM very soon. On that day I was tired of saying Eid Mubarak to officers.”
PDP-BJP alliance formed Government in 2015 and in June 2018 BJP pulled out of the alliance. There were talks of fresh elections at that time.
Omar said even when he was released in March 2020, from the detention not a single officers came to greet him on Eid.
“This is nothing new (officers not turning up after loss of power) to me, I have seen it. I saw it when my father’s (Farooq Abdullah) Government was overthrown in 1984. I saw it in 1990 (when Governor’s rule was imposed). I saw it after 2002 when Mufti Sayeed became CM for the first time .”
Omar Abdullah said it was less of a shock for him but for some of his colleagues it was very difficult to understand where have all the officers gone.
“An officer is an officer, he will salute the rising Sun and that is what you have to expect.”
Omar said it’s probably in the nature of the officers to please their political masters. Narrating an incident, Omar said he played cricket match for the ministry of External Affairs against the officers or other ministry when he was the MoS External Affairs in late PM Vajpayee’s Government. He said when he went to bat, he was thrown a very soft ball as if the bowler was saying: Sir maariye , Sir maariye (sir pls hit it).
Another incident he narrated during the interview is that when his father (Farooq Abdullah) was the Chief Minister, there was CM 11 Vs Chamber of Commerce 11 cricket match and Chamber 11 was playing very well.
“I had it on my good authority that captain or very senior in the chamber team was called by the Chief Secretary and told that your victory will not go down well and you have to rethink your strategy.”
Omar said these instructions reached my father and he told the Chamber that if you lose you guys have had it, so they were torn between what Chief Secretary told them and what the CM was saying but ultimately Chamber 11 won the match.
Recounting the events leading up to Aug 5, 2019, when Art 370 was abrogated, Omar said he knew something was coming but what will happen they didn’t know,
“The night before telephones went down and that is the first sign of trouble. Mobile internet went down on the night of Aug 4, 2019 but wifi at home was still working. I started to get messages on Whatsapp that my colleagues are being rounded up and taken to various police stations, When I woke up in the morning even fixed lines were not working.”
“Then we knew something big is to be expected. I stepped out and saw that I had been locked in. Then I saw the Home Minister on TV telling us what our future is going to be. Two State Government officers gave me my detention order.”
Omar Abdullah said he initially thought their (political leaders) detention will be a for a week or 10-day as Aug 15 (Independence Day celebration) was coming. He said when they were not released on Aug 15 , they thought may be on Eid they will release them but even that didn’t happen.
Omar said in Lalit Hotel where Mehbooba Mufti was also detained the officers told them in no uncertain terms that “we will not have any communication with each other or with other leaders detained there”.
” Though I was allowed to get food from home but everything was thoroughly checked so that nothing is being sneaked in .Even daal was checked. My household staff’s socks were taken off and their toes were parted to check if they were no notes stuck there.”
Omar said though mainstream politicians were locked up after Aug 5, 2019, the separatists leaders were roaming the in Khan Market at New Delhi.
He said he has been brought up to assume that that their phones are being constantly tapped. ” Earlier when there were landline phone it was very easy to tap them. You would often hear the line click, when you are talking, you would hear the echo. Sometimes the officer who was tapping phone would even cough while you were talking. Then you would tell them (official tapping the home) that please stop it what are you doing . I hardly ever talk in the car, I assume car is not the safe place.”
On being asked if he or Shahrukh Khan is better looking , Omar replied: Shahrukh Khan. “He is film star worth thousands of crores, where Am I. People die for him. He stands on his gate and there are hundreds of people falling over each other to get his glimpse. Here outside my home there are just police personnel.”
The former J&K CM said there are only two people in the country who know when will be the Statehood of J&K restored and elections will be held and neither of them is sharing that information with us.
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