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Jammu, Apr. 28 (ANI): Power and prestige rest easily on his slim shoulders. Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir, is a third generation politician from the Abdullah family. But, he says he wants this trend to stop with him.

Abdullah said: “I don’t want my kids to be in politics. If they do make that decision, then I won’t be politics. They can then start at whatever level they want. But I wouldn’t want them to do it. It is time we get away from this, for the simple reason - why should anybody go through life with this belief that they have a god given right.”

But when I asked him if dynastic politics had helped him get where he was, he didn’t fake outrage. In fact, he was disarmingly candid.

“Of course, it helped, how could I sit here with a straight face and tell you that I have got all this because of the incredible amount of hard work and charm that I have (grins). You don’t become a Member of Parliament at 28 years on the basis of your other qualities; it’s your surname that helps. After that, we actually come to the mandate of the people, and, it is up to us to live up to those expectations.”

The camera friendly Omar breaks into a smile when I ask him if it is upsetting to be in a profession, which is looked upon derisively in India today.

He says, “It’s not new, show me a single Bollywood movie ever made in which the neta (politician) is the good guy. It’s an image I have grown up with, and now, it is one that I am identified with.”

“Do I want to fly off the handle and tell some of these people - get real we are all not the same, some of us are a little less deserving of the ‘mera neta chor hai’ (my leader is a thief) tag, yes I do. But then, that is the perception people have of us and, unless we do something, we can’t expect them to give us more respect than they are willing to give us,” he adds.

There isn’t a moment’s hesitation in answering any question that is thrown his way — whether it is of the plight of refugees or the Hurriyat (a separatist relgio-political group in Kashmir). His lips curve into a wry smile while speaking about his bete noire Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Asked if there is any meeting point between Geelani’s five-point programme and the National Conference’s plan, Abdullah replies: “We haven’t rejected any proposal. We (the National Conference party, to which Abdullah belongs) believe that the pre-53 and the post-47 plan is the best for the state (more autonomy than is currently given to Jammu and Kashmir).

“But, if there is a better solution acceptable to a wider section of population, we would be quite happy to go along with that,” he adds.

And then, comes the zinger — “If Mr. Geelani can convince more people, then so be it. His method of convincing people is to go out on Fridays and catch as many people as he can as they come of out of a mosque, and, when he leaves, he leaves behind a mess for us to clean up.” A smile on his lips but a glint in his eye.

Abdullah has oppressive security presence around him. But he takes it in his stride. He shops for grocery in Delhi’s tony Khan market, as often as he hops across to pick his sons up from school.

In Srinagar, the summer capital, and in Jammu, the winter capital, he doesn’t have the freedom to do so. He has little choice. There is nothing that militants would want more than eliminating a young and bright politician who speaks the language of democracy and progress.

However, he wishes he could have provided the same level of security to Maulvi Shaukat Ahmed Shah, a moderate Hurriyat leader who was assassinated on April 8 by gunmen.

Abdullah says: “The Maulana had faced three earlier assassination attempts but he wouldn’t accept state security because of his political beliefs. He had just two personal security officers who were unable to do anything against improvised explosive devices.”

I asked him if this didn’t send out a message that moderate voices couldn’t be protected by state, he replied: “We will do our level best to protect people who are willing to come forward and be counted.”

Sitting in Jammu, Omar would have to be blind not to see the pathetic plight of refugees in the city.

These are people here who came in from Pakistan in 1947 during the partition, and in 1965 and 1971 during the India-Pakistan wars, and then, the Hindus who fled militant threats in Kashmir in the early nineties. Their domicile status and rehabilitation is fraught with complications.

When I ask him when will he sort out this mess, Omar replies: “I am not in a position to lay down a time frame for them. There is the humanitarian side, which we can’t, ignore, and then, there is the legal and political side of it.”

“For those who came in from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK - one third of the state is in Pakistan’s control since 1948), it is practically impossible for a government to say that we won’t take back that part of Kashmir, there is a unanimous Parliamentary resolution hanging on my shoulder, it is a mandate of the Government of India. Practically, and in private, we know that we cannot send them back to PoK or, get back PoK. But I can’t design government policy without factoring in, these elements,” he adds.

There are huge expectations from Abdullah even as he battles a sluggish bureaucracy and the presence of the Army in his state. His adversaries are many, and even those who voted him to power, are impatient for change.

Everyday brings with it news of infiltrations from the border, extremists regrouping for a violent summer, his political adversaries hurling unsavory allegations and the entire foreign and national media watching his moves almost on a day to day basis.

His only solace probably lies in the fact that his father and his grandfather, both former chief ministers, had equally tough tenures. (ANI)

Attn: News Editors/News Desks: This the second part of an exclusive ANI interview with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.