Independence Day in Jammu and Kashmir is never a mere ritual. It is a yearly moment when sovereignty is reaffirmed and the nation’s patience with decades of political opportunism is tested against the promise of a new beginning.

On August 15 this year, as tricolours fluttered across the Valley, Omar Abdullah chose the solemn occasion not to celebrate the Republic’s unity but to issue a thinly veiled ultimatum. Wrapped in rhetoric of dignity and equality, his message was unmistakable: restore statehood on his terms, or there would be “consequences."

The warning might have been dismissed as the usual political posturing of a party struggling to regain relevance. But when read together with Farooq Abdullah’s latest statement on the unrest in Ladakh, combined with the unrest in Nepal, it reveals something more dangerous than mere rhetoric. Farooq, while speaking on September 25, called the protests in Ladakh a “genuine voice", downplayed violent incidents like the burning of offices and vehicles, and subtly linked Ladakhi demands to the stalled promise of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir.

In doing so, he not only legitimised street violence but also sought to fuse two distinct theatres of grievance into a single narrative of agitation against Delhi.

Abdullahs are experienced politicians; their words are never innocent. We are witnessing the unfolding of a strategy where the mobilisation of streets is not an afterthought but the primary instrument of politics. It is a script the people of Kashmir have seen before: unrest carefully manufactured, selective amplification of grievances, pressure on Delhi to negotiate, and the NC once again emerging as the essential broker of stability.

Kashmir........

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