ELLEN BARRY
The New York Times spoke to Omar Abdullah, chief minister of the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, at his residence in Srinagar on Saturday six hours before the event of the season: A concert by world-renowned conductor Zubin Mehta and the Bavarian State Orchestra, who had flown in from Munich, Germany, for the occasion. Despite criticism from separatists and civil society groups, there was clearly no stopping the event’s momentum, and thousands of police had been deployed to secure the venue, a 17th century Mughal garden.
Mr. Abdullah confessed that he had lost sleep over the event, and said he would be deeply relieved if the evening passed without violence or disruption.
The interview was conducted before sporadic incidents of violence were reported from the Kashmir Valley on Saturday. Two civilians and two suspected militants were killed and 11 people including security personnel and locals were injured during the violence .
Q. What is this concert going to do for Kashmir?
A. The fact that you are here because of the concert kind of answers your question. It puts my state back in the spotlight, for better or for worse. I do not expect anything to fundamentally change as a result of this concert.
Q. Have you ever held an event of this kind here?
A. I don’t, in my lifetime, remember anything on this scale. It’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see someone like Zubin Mehta performing in a Mughal garden, against the background of Mughal architecture. As the situation improves, hopefully we will be able to have more events like this, but it’s the first.
Q. The German ambassador has done a great deal to make this concert possible. Do you see Germany as having a distinct policy toward Kashmir, compared to the rest of the European Union?
A. The fact that the German government removed its travel advisory made this concert possible, that was the first step in this direction….Germany is far ahead. While others have selectively either steadfastly removed their travel advisories, and others have tinkered with them – like the United Kingdom eased their travel restrictions – Germany was the first to take the lead and, for want of a better word, stuck their neck out by almost completely withdrawing their advisory.
Q. How serious are your security concerns?
A. I don’t think it is quite reached to the point where we are going to have snipers and sharpshooters hanging out of trees. There will be some plainclothes presence within the grounds, some basic sort of quick response team presence. Basic precautions we will have to take. It takes one hothead to let off one pistol shot which will not necessarily have to kill somebody but to make news. We don’t want anybody to be able to distract attention.
Q. Civil society groups have organized an alternative concert today, but they’ve gotten permission to hold it simultaneously with the Zubin Mehta concert. They say the administration issued permission very late, and at the same time, so that media cannot cover their function. Is that true?
A. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. You want a parallel concert, have a parallel concert. If you are so sure of what you are doing, you should have courage to do it at the same time.
Q. You sound very irritated with them.
A. I am irritated with these people, because they were counting on fact that state government would say no and we would round them up yesterday night and put them away for 24 hours and they would have the status of martyrs. You have asked for permission, so we gave the permission.
Q. How much money has the state government spent on this event?
A. A certain amount of work has happened in the garden, which was anyway part of a planned improvement – restoration of damaged buildings of the garden, particularly the fountains. They had fallen into disrepair. So all we have done is to slightly widen the scope of that work. The state government will be spending 5 crore [about $760,000] of which 4 crore was stuff that was anyway being done.
Q. Did you expect so much of opposition from civil society groups?
A. To be honest with you, I did expect some resistance. These people look for events like this to prove their existence. They get very little opportunity to actually do that. The fact that international media are asking Geelani [separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani] what he thinks shows that he has used this concert to give him a new lease on life. The one thing I was worried about has not been part of the public discourse–I was worried people would take out Zubin Mehta’s history. I was worried they would use that Israeli connection.
Q. The main complaint we’ve heard from local people is that they’re not allowed to attend the concert. How do you respond to that?
A. How many people are actual genuine connoisseurs of Western classical music? I have had people ask me for passes, and then ask me, ‘What sort of songs does Zubin Mehta sing?’ Events like this are ordinarily managed in a way in which access is not freely granted to everybody. It would be impossible for us to allow anyone and everyone who wanted to enter this concert. We started with 1000 seats, then went up to 1500 and later up to 2000. Three quarters if not two-thirds of them are local.
Q. Why is the ceasefire on the line of control violated so frequently these days?
A. There is an obvious link between Nawaz Sharif [prime minister of Pakistan] getting elected and activity on the Line of Control increasing. Whether there is a deeper design than this I don’t know. The biggest symbol of our improved relationship is actually coming close of falling apart. Heavy shells and mortars are being used as well. It could be that this systematic violation of ceasefire is designed to undermine the peace initiative. Our security force casualties are higher than last year but overall violence is lower.
Q. Are Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi expected tonight? And will you be relieved when it’s over?
A. Given the sensitivities in terms of security, as much as I would have liked to Mrs. Gandhi and Rahul here, I think it’s. And yes, I will sleep a lot better tonight than I have for the last nights. I am sure a lot of my officers will, too. There will be a general sense of relief when Maestro puts his baton down and we all stream out of the venue.
(nytimes)
