{"id":420,"date":"2014-03-08T15:11:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-08T15:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kashmir-today.net\/2010-unrest-worst-period-of-my-life-omar\/"},"modified":"2014-03-08T15:11:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-08T15:11:00","slug":"2010-unrest-worst-period-of-my-life-omar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=420","title":{"rendered":"2010 unrest worst period of my life: Omar"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\"><b>\u2018My dad is not my best friend\u2019<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kashmir.watch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/omar_story_300x350_030814013715.jpg\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/kashmir.watch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/omar_story_300x350_030814013715.jpg\" height=\"275\" width=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div><b style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;\">Srinagar:<\/b><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;\"> Recalling the summer unrest of 2010 in which more than 120 people were killed during the protest demonstrations, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah&nbsp;Saturday&nbsp;termed that period the \u2018worst one\u2019 in his life.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">\u201cI won\u2019t say that period was the worst one in my entire political career but it was worst one in my life- it consumed me and changed me in more ways than one,\u201d said Omar while speaking at the India Today conclave 2014 at New Delhi.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">According to the reports received by KNS, Omar stated that during his tenure as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir the biggest lesson he has learnt was that no single problem is smaller in nature and that the same could any time accumulate into one massive problem like the summer of 2010. \u201cAt beginning I was dismissive of the smaller problems but I soon learnt that those smaller problems can accumulate into one massive problem.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">Recalling the 2010 summer unrest in the state, Omar while terming that time as \u2018terrible\u2019, stated that there was no easy way to get out of the situation. I don\u2019t really remember that how I used to calm myself down during that period; said Omar adding that he wanted to put the state back on its rails and get things back to normal.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">Commenting over his relation with his father Dr Farooq Abdullah, Omar maintained that his father and he himself are not the best friends and that both are two different individuals. \u201cMy father is not my best friend- we are two different individuals. My dad would quite happily stand up and do few steps if you ring a bell. I won\u2019t do it, that is not who I am. I don\u2019t sing and I don\u2019t do shairi (Poetry).\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">Commenting over the suspension of the students from one of the University of Meerut in the recent past after the students cheered for Pakistan during the Indo-Pak match, Omar observed that on one hand you take scholarship from Prime Minister of India for the higher studies and on the other hand they cheer for Pakistan. \u201cIt was wrong. What they did was misguided.\u201d However Omar maintained that the slapping of sedition charges against students was unnecessary and that the freedom of free speech is what makes India great.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">Omar while expressing his apprehensions stated that the Meerut episode will be used by BJP as the election tool as they already have written to the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the dropping of sedition charges against the students.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">Over the issue of alliance with NDA or BJP after the forthcoming parliamentary polls, Omar clarified that National Conference (NC) will never forge any alliance with BJP or NDA. \u201cOur relation in the past was with Atal Bihari Vajpayee who took vital steps for Jammu and Kashmir and India\u2019s relations with Pakistan.\u201d Declaring that no government in India can even touch Article 370 with the consent of the state government, Omar reiterated that BJP is using the demand of abrogation of Article 370 as \u2018election slogan\u2019.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">Stating that the great step that he strives to take for the youth of Kashmir is to remove the \u2018uncertainty\u2019 from their minds about their future, Omar said that the development of the tourism industry in the state would help in generating new job avenues for the youth. Omar also dismissed the reports about the possible security consequences after the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan- stating that he doesn\u2019t buy that argument that its impact will be on Jammu and Kashmir.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;\">Answering the question about the revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) Omar maintained that the fear of consequences has to be built up in Army operating in Jammu and Kashmir. \u201cWe have to make difference between legal cover and impunity. For sure there will be legal cover but there has to be the fear of consequences. \u201d When asked how he spends his free time, Omar said, \u201cIn winter I go up to Gulmarag for ski. I love that freedom. The good thing in it is that my security person doesn\u2019t know the skiing- they are learning the same.\u201d Omar added that he loves to watch lot of American TV shows including Goodwife, Suits and Homeland.&nbsp;(KNS)<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018My dad is not my best friend\u2019 Srinagar: Recalling the summer unrest of 2010 in which more than 120 people were killed during the protest demonstrations, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah&nbsp;Saturday&nbsp;termed that period the \u2018worst one\u2019 in his life. \u201cI won\u2019t say that period was the worst one in my entire political career but it was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}