A friend who has access to J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah’s Facebook (FB) profile recounts how the tech-savvy CM is prompt at commenting on his friends status messages,  pictures and links. 

He is forever online on FB and reacts to even a sneeze of any of his friends, she said. No wonder he has rightly earned the apposite title of ‘BlackBerry czar’.

We wish the young CM was equally prompt in addressing the aspirations of the people of his state who, peeved at years of misgovernance and neglect, have taken to the streets. Agreed that the separatists, egged on by their handlers in Pakistan, stoke tension in the valley, but the fact is, the restlessness of the youth that they readily exploit, is for real. The never-ending protests and stone pelting by a largely young mob, captures their entrenched feeling of hopelessness and anger. 

And, to the state’s misfortune it has a CM who has stumbled from one crisis to another without a clear-cut goal or plan.  Earlier, during the Shopian crisis or the Amarnath land issue, he was equally pusillanimous and spineless. Not long ago, young Abdullah, riding on his youthful energy and promise to deliver governance, won a decisive mandate to rule the state. His admirers also recollect his passionate speech in the parliament at a no confidence motion brought in by the opposition in 2008, and wonder where that passion and decisiveness has gone. Ever since the current crisis broke out he has not only dithered from taking control of the situation he has egregiously refused to visit the riot affected districts and  establish the much needed connect with his people. 

Leave your BlackBerry home for a while, Omar, and instead of worrying about a sneeze of your friends on FB, worry about the deadly cold that your state has caught.