Omar Abdullah asked, “Why don’t politicians ask questions in Kashmir?”

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said at an event on Saturday, “We (politicians) in Kashmir are not in the habit of asking questions, and the people are not in the habit of answering them either.” Abdullah said after laying the foundation stone for the widening of Boulevard Road from Nehru Park to Kral Sangri here that politicians in Kashmir have stopped asking questions of the people in public meetings. Abdullah said jokingly, “You must have noticed a huge difference between the speeches of Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Chaudhary and mine. He has done politics in Jammu, where any direct question gets a direct answer, but here in Kashmir, we don’t even ask questions; this habit has been lost in the last 35 years.” Referring to the separatist slogans that were raised in the Valley before 2019, Abdullah said, “If you are giving a speech on the streets and ask people what they want, in Jammu you will get the answer—’Roads,’ but if you ask the same question in the Valley, there is no certainty what the answer will be. ‘What do we want?’—’Toy toy fis!’ (No answer).” This drew laughter from the audience. Abdullah said, “So now we are not in the habit of asking questions, and the people are not in the habit of answering them either.” However, he added that politicians and ordinary people in Kashmir are slowly developing the habit of asking questions, but it will take some time for the results to be seen.