The social media broke into hives with memes trolling Omar Abdullah for his participation in the TCS World 10K marathon in Bengaluru. Not just immature but petty and partisan. 

A man who reportedly has chosen to test his limits at 5 a.m. on empty roads for years deserves the same privacy any citizen would claim for a personal passion. He has a life beyond the Chief Minister’s chair. In private, Omar Abdullah is entitled to be a marathoner, answerable only to the finish line. That private self needs no public justification.

Equally sophomoric is the attempt of the National Conference hacks brigade to dress up the run as a grand political message. Calling a personal race “leadership” or “projecting strength” is the worst kind of symbolism-over-substance politics. Personal endurance does not axiomatically engender public policy.

Treat the marathon for exactly what it is: a private pursuit. As a society there must be maturity to respect the man’s right to run. Equally, the other side should not be clever by half and insult public intelligence by pretending it was done to promote tourism in Kashmir.

The only quibble with Omar participating in the marathon, his solitary test of grit, can be the decision to fold it into an official visit complete with film-industry and education investment meetings. The race should have remained in private capacity. Once merged, the Chief Minister, not the runner, is on display. This feeds the narrative that public office is being used for private passions.

His minions and digital henchmen should know that to drag in political messaging, official protocol, and photo-ops is an intrusion into Omar’s personal ritual of endurance and solitude. It is a personal refuge where there are no voters to please, no opponents to counter, and no allies to negotiate with.

Omar Abdullah should keep running. The Chief Minister should not turn the run into an official photo-op. The........

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