There is no nameplate outside the house at 40, Gupkar Road, Srinagar. Nothing to indicate who lives behind its tall, black gates. But the presence of unsmiling security guards; the metal detector that all visitors must enter through; a line of babudom’s official car, the Ambassador; and the lone banner congratulating “Jenab Omar Abdullah”, the new chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), are dead giveaways.
Once past the guards and the metal detector, you find yourself in a courtyard facing a garden. It’s early evening but the darkness has set in and there’s a light drizzle that will turn to sleet in another few hours. The men who bustle about are varied—young men in trendy short haircuts, older men in loose pherans and white beards. Orders for tea and staccato conversations on the phone can be overheard, punctuated by bursts of laughter.
Peoples’ choice: (clockwise from top) Abdullah greets supporters in Srinagar after his return from New Delhi on 30 December. PTI Photo; he says he wants to keep his sons, Zamir, 11, and Zahir, 10, away from the spotlight; and he met his wife Payal while he was working in Mumbai. Photographs: Javed Shah
The day I meet him, Camp Omar Abdullah is busy making plans to get to Jammu, some 300km away. There, the grandson of Sheikh Abdullah, Kashmir’s most famous nationalist leader known as “the lion of Kashmir”, is to meet the governor, stake his claim to form the government and then lead party workers through an open car victory procession. The next day (5 January), he would be formally sworn in as the 11th chief minister of J&K since 1965 (until 1965, the head of the state was designated “prime minister”, but that’s another story), a post that’s been held by both his grandfather, the Sheikh, and his father, Farooq Abdullah. Present at the ceremony and watching the new Abdullah guard take over would be Omar’s English mother, Mollie, who divides her time between England and Srinagar, and his three sisters, Safia (who lives in Srinagar), Hinna Collins (who lives in England) and Sara, the youngest, who is married to Congress member of Parliament Sachin Pilot and lives in New Delhi.
The 38-year-old Omar—the youngest chief minister of J&K—is unapologetic about issues of family and dynasty. He says he chose to enter politics, despite some initial discouragement from his father, Farooq. “My father wasn’t keen at all that I join politics, perhaps because he knew first-hand just what it could do to family and personal life,” says Omar. But he was just as clear that he wanted to contribute and “do more”. The time and effort he was ploughing into the corporate sector would be more gainfully used in public life, he believed.