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New Delhi: When after months of turmoil, Jammu and Kashmir went to the polls, it was to elect its youngest ever chief minister, Omar Abdullah.
The 38-year-old scion of Kashmir's first family is the youngest chief minister the state has ever had. Abdullah is the third generation of his family to don the mantle of Chief Minister.
In this interview, he talks about his vision for Jammu and Kashmir, and how he intends to bring in peace and progress in the troubled state.
Gulf News: As the youngest chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, what is your vision for the state?
OMAR ABDULLAH: Well, as a vision our aim is a peaceful Jammu and Kashmir, a Jammu & Kashmir where all three regions live in complete harmony, where within regions various communities are at peace with each other. Our vision is a Jammu & Kashmir that is able to take advantage of the huge economic opportunities that liberalisation has given most of the other parts of India.
Our vision is of a Jammu & Kashmir where we can play the role of a bridge between India and Pakistan, where the two parts of the state (in India and Pakistan) are able to establish closer connectivity and closer links and this is essentially what we are working towards.
Recent reports hinted that India and Pakistan were close to finalising a deal on Kashmir.
The only people who can really talk about this with any degree of surety are people who are actively involved with the actual dialogue. But we have heard about the progress being made.
Unfortunately, General Musharraf's problems with the Supreme Court intervened. I think that was tragic because this is a problem that had festered for sixty years and this is the closest that we had come to actually resolving it.
You said elections in Jammu and Kashmir have given a lifeline to India and the country should capitalise on it. Can you elaborate?
Well, given the summer that we had had in terms of violence, the distrust and mistrust between the communities and especially between the two regions (of Jammu & Kashmir) nobody had expected an election with a healthy participation.
I believe it was a big shot in the arm and that's what I meant as the lifeline. People voted with expectations, people voted because they had concerns, related to electricity, roads, water, health care; they wanted a little less pressure from the gun that they have lived with over the last 20 years.
The fact that the people voted is something we have to recognise, respect and act upon.
Does your government plan to repatriate and rehabilitate the Kashmiri Hindu population that fled during the militancy?
Certainly. There is a big project that was started by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and its continuing. I went there to personally monitor the progress.
We are building new apartment blocks in Jagti (in Jammu). Repatriation comes first and then rehabilitation. Right now our primary focus is to make those who had migrated as comfortable as we can do, to give them a certain standard of living in terms of basic amenities.
The choice should be made available to them. At the same time my government has a great responsibility to improve the lives of those Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus) who did not leave the valley..
What are you doing to give the people of Kashmir a healing touch?
I don't believe in getting into slogans. They have to be translated into action. We have made a start by increasing the presence and the role of the Jammu and Kashmir police. We are determined to ensure that there are no incidents of rights violations.
What are you doing to promote industry and create employment?
There is already a package of incentives for investment in Jammu & Kashmir and that needs to be strengthened. Though we have rivers, we have not been able to fully exploit our capacity for generating hydro-electricity. We have a couple of big hydro-electric projects in the pipeline.
We are also working on skill development. We have inherent advantages because of our climate and so there are areas like horticulture, floriculture, food processing, agro-processing where investing in the state will be advantageous.
We are striving to create avenues of employment for the youth, I am keen that we look for avenues outside the government. The Essar Group is setting up a business processing unit in Srinagar and Jammu.
We are also actively engaged with Confederation of Indian Industries, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industries, and Nasscom to see how they can help us - both in skill development and in attracting investment.
How do you plan to tackle corruption?
I believe a transparent and open government is less likely to be corrupt. Hence, my coalition partners and I were keen, even during the elections, that we implement a stronger Right to Information Act in the state.
We hope to have a bill ready so that we can bring it to the Assembly at the earliest and have that passed. We also want to strengthen the Accountability Commission and e-governance. But results are not possible overnight. The fight against corruption should be waged quietly.
Jammu feels the government's politics is Kashmir-centric. Does your government plan any concessions for Jammu?
Well, if you were to go to the valley, you will hear same complaints against Jammu and if you go to Leh and Kargil you will hear complaints against both Jammu and Kashmir.
There is a need to look at how we divide our resources and how we allocate them even within regions. I think the solution to this is to empower the grassroots, not only in the planning, but also in the utilisation.
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