Imagine a naughty child ringing the doorbell of his own house before running behind a wall. His mother steps outside, finds nobody and returns indoors. 

The bell rings again. This time, she catches him peeping from behind the wall. 

She raises a finger in admonishment, and he responds with a smile. She knows the troublemaker and recognises the house to which he belongs.

Dr Farooq Abdullah has something of that child’s political temperament. 

He can provoke New Delhi, unsettle his opponents and generate headlines with a few sentences. His latest remarks have revived an old question about his politics: should his public provocations be read as evidence of a fundamental political departure, or as the old theatrics of a leader who knows how to make himself heard?

Speaking at Baramulla on October 24, Abdullah reportedly credited Pakistan’s international advocacy on Kashmir with helping protect Kashmiris and questioned New Delhi’s intentions. 

BJP leaders condemned his remarks and demanded action. The National Conference subsequently accused its critics of taking the speech out of context.

The controversy calls for scrutiny, but so does the political record of the man at its centre. 

A provocative speech cannot erase decades of constitutional engagement, just as a long record of cooperation with New Delhi cannot exempt a senior politician from questions about his words.

Abdullah’s political inheritance begins with his father, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, whose role in Kashmir’s relationship with India was consequential at a decisive historical moment. 

On February 5, 1948, Sheikh Abdullah addressed the United Nations Security Council........

© Kashmir Observer