"Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw as we flew over Srinagar with the PM. I can remember looking out of the window as the plane did a low circuit over the city, absolutely dumbfounded…. I started to realise just how bad the situation was when I saw the scale of the disaster," writes Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the Indian Express of the moment when he first grasped the enormity of the devastation wreaked by the floods.
His near-naive astonishment echoes that of another leader during another such crisis in another part of the world.
The plane flew over New Orleans, then traveled along the coast to Mobile, Miss., before turning north toward Washington. “It’s totally wiped out,” Bush remarked as the modified Boeing 747 moved east past Slidell, a Louisiana community reduced to a pile of rubble and sticks. “It’s devastating, it’s got to be doubly devastating on the ground,” Bush said, according to his spokesman Scott McClellan.
Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah. Reuters
Then President George Bush too was looking out of a plane window when he realised — a critical 24 hours too late — the consequences of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. The natural disaster would prove to be the final nail in the coffin of a presidency already weakened by the debilitating Iraq war.
It is all the more ironic then that Abdullah's Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi would choose to offer the "Katrina defense" to explain his government's inaction, and request large-scale assistance from the Centre. "Quoting the Oklahoma flooding by Hurricane Katrina, Rather is believed to have told the prime minister plainly that no civilian government in the world is ready to face such a calamity," reports Firstpost contributor Aasha Khosa.
Yes, Kashmir is indeed like Katrina but for a number of reasons less palatable to the Abdullah's government.
One, it marks the complete failure of leadership — but in this case, at the local, not national level. Unlike Bush, the Prime Minister's response was swift and generous, aimed to make sure that no one will accuse the Centre of playing step-mother to Kashmir. And whatever the carping about the rescue efforts, except for its most unreasonable critics, most know that the military is doing its best, given weather and terrain conditions. What has been most notable about the floods in Kashmir is the near-absence of the local authorities.
As Basharat Peer tells The Times of India:
The failure of the local government is simply shocking. All you see making an effort are the boys from the army with their boats and machinery and common people. I heard that Omar Abdullah was on television throwing down relief packets, and posing with a chinar in the backdrop, a tokenism of an appearance. But his leadership is nowhere to be seen and I have not seen this kind of failure of the government in a long time.
Photos of Abdullah raining down relief packets at his people, in fact, mark his very 'Brownie' moment — as when Bush told the federal disaster agency head, Michael Brown, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," even as FEMA was botching the rescue effort. As with Bush, the image has become a symbol of just how distant and out-of-touch Omar is from the average Kashmiri.
Two, it has become representative of the problem of privilege. "Flood victims are narrating horrifying tales at make-shift camps, alleging selective approach to rescue operations. The stories are heartrending,'' journalist Shujaat Bukhari told TOI,confirming allegations of "selective rescue." Where Katrina exposed racism in America, as poorer, black neighbourhoods were last to be evacuated, the floods have exposed the age-old VIP culture that afflicts not just Kashmir, but all of India. And while the extent of the problem is likely exaggerated when placed in the context of the sheer numbers that have been evacuated, it would hardly be surprising if authorities were ordered to prioritise those with 'connections', or more affluent areas or tourists (This is India, after all).
It is why Abdullah — while never directly addressing the issue of selective rescue — goes to great, even amusing, lengths to include in his Indian Express essaysuch nuggets as:
My Minister for Sheep & Animal Husbandry was brave beyond belief, his daughters were last heard screaming for help in their official residence where waters were reported to have climbed to the second floor of the two-floor home. He had no idea of their welfare or whereabouts, but he kept working and contributing to the efforts that were unfolding by flying to the airport and helping to coordinate activities there. My uncles, one of them seriously ill, requiring regular dialysis, and sundry other family were trapped in their homes with no contact, but I couldn’t do anything to rescue them in the immediate aftermath. In fact, my uncles came out after three days of being trapped by flagging down a private boat passing through the area.
Their very detail makes the tales sound unconvincing, and Abdullah, weak and defensive, for he knows well that it is his government that will pay the price for this perception. Given the long-fraught relationship, Kashmiris expect little from the Central government and the army — which is why rumors of negligence are easy to believe. Omar Abdullah does not however enjoy the luxury of low expectations, as onestranded Srinagar resident made it clear, “The situation is pathetic. We are wondering why we voted for a state government that does nothing for us.”
That is the question that will loom over Abdullah now that he has compounded his George Bush act with the now classic Sheila Dikshit defence. As Dikshit discovered in the aftermath of the Delhi gang rape, no one will vote for a leader who declares her helplessness. It is unlikely then that Kashmiris will be impressed, come election time, by a Chief Minister who despondently writes, "I can’t remember a single natural disaster in the country where the government tasked with responding was so completely paralysed."
Abdullah's reelection prospects, always precarious, now look inevitably doomed. And as his rivals vie to profit from his losses, the blame game over the floods will get uglier still as Election Day draws nigh. George Bush's Katrina moment offered a vital opportunity to Democrats who had tried but failed to capitalize on the Iraq war. Who will be the winners in this situation — the separatists or the BJP — remains to be seen. The loser, however, has already been declared.
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