Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday took its democratic oath from the darkest chambers of confinement.
The Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) on the banks of the Dal Lake was on Wednesday the venue of the swearing-in of Jammu and Kashmir's first democratically elected government in six years, marking a stunning leap from the erstwhile state's days of disempowerment.
It was at the SKICC that many Valley leaders had been detained after the scrapping of Article 370 in 2019.
The SKICC had been converted into a high-profile prison to detain three dozen pro-India politicians, former ministers and legislators in August 2019 as part of the crackdown to prevent protests against the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status.
Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti were also detained, but at separate places, during the clampdown and booked under the stringent Public Safety Act.
On Wednesday, many of those detained leaders returned to the SKICC as venerated guests, MLAs or ministers and were greeted by the same officers who had detained them.
During a visit to the “detention centre” in 2019, this newspaper had interacted with the VIP detainees and was told that the place was infested with rats, which had bitten two leaders — Nizam-ud-Din Bhat from the National Conference and Mukhtar Bandh from the Peoples Democratic Party.
Bhat, who won the Assembly election from Bandipora as a Congress candidate, told The Telegraph about his ordeal. “For around a week, I was left unattended. A doctor came and treated me at the centre itself. That was it. A week later, I developed some other ailment that required an ultrasonography for which I was shifted to a hospital. It took me a month to heal from the rat bite. It was a punishment.”
“My first impression as I stepped into the complex today was that our sufferings have paid a better dividend. I do not look at the new Assembly through the prism of how much power it wields but through the public mandate, which was a verdict against our humiliation. The rest is a long struggle.”
Bijbehara MLA Dr Bashir Veeri, who spent six-and-a-half months as a detainee at the complex, said. “Most of the people who were detained here, including Ali Mohammad Sagar sahab and Mubarak Gul Showkat Ahmad Ganai, have won the elections.”
“We faced extreme harassment, abuses and threats here. At Srinagar Central Jail, you still had the luxury to move out of the barracks but we were mostly confined to our rooms. During the first month, our families had no clue where we were detained. Later they allowed them to visit the place once a week.”
The inmates were later shifted to Srinagar’s MLA hostel, which was also converted into a detention centre.
Rahul Gandhi, who attended the swearing-in along with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Akhilesh Yadav, congratulated Omar but regretted that “government formation without statehood felt incomplete today”.
On Wednesday, Omar posted photographs of him in his office chair with the caption “I’m back.”
The new government also took some symbolic steps to reassure the people.
Omar posted on X that during his first visit to Srinagar’s civil secretariat, he told the director-general of police that he didn’t want any “green corridor” or traffic stoppage for him, a move seen as a subtle message to lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha.
“I have instructed him to minimise public inconvenience & the use of sirens is to be minimal. The use of any stick waving or aggressive gestures is to be totally avoided. I’m asking my cabinet colleagues to follow the same example,” he posted.
“Our administration’s approach will be people-friendly. We have entered the civil secretariat with a positive mindset, focused on delivering the best for the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he later said.
