When Omar Abdullah took oath as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on October 16 last year, expectations were high. Many saw the National Conference’s return as a step toward democratic restoration after years of central rule that saw the scrapping of Article 370 and Article 35 (a) that used to protect limited autonomy and identity.
One year later, that hope has thinned. Abdullah heads a government with a popular mandate but little control over the levers of administration.
Veteran journalist Masood Hussain writes the imbalance is structural: “Despite a landslide mandate, Omar Abdullah leads a government stripped of autonomy, with key powers resting in the Raj Bhawan.”
He adds that Abdullah’s opposition “began long before he took the oath,” and recalls the taunt that followed his reluctant entry into the race: “Na na karkay han kar di!” After a year, Hussain writes, “he has been one of the most powerless Chief Ministers Jammu and Kashmir has ever seen,” and “though he avoids casting himself as a victim, he remains, in truth, the principal casualty of the new order.”
Abdullah’s predicament mirrors the years when Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party fought for control of services. An aide of Arvind Kejriwal told this writer they often “dreaded” calling meetings because they were not sure officers would come. “So, to save embarrassment, we stopped calling meetings.” Although a five-member bench of the Supreme Court in 2023 clarified powers in Delhi, it was already too late.
A similar dynamic now dogs Srinagar. In the Union Territory set-up, the Lieutenant Governor writes officers’ annual confidential reports. The incentive to heed the elected executive is weak, and indifference shows.
The only major decision Omar Abdullah’s government can claim in its first year is reviving the historic Darbar Move—the biannual shifting of the capital between Srinagar and Jammu for six months each.
Beyond this symbolic revival, few policy actions have made it past the Raj Bhawan’s desks. Even routine administrative matters require approval from the LG’s office. Files linger for months, including one for appointing Abdullah’s own adviser, Nasir Aslam Wani, whose salary remains unpaid.
Last month, Abdullah was reportedly forced to abandon an official tourism visit to Paris after Delhi withheld formal clearance. The episode, quietly discussed within political circles, underlined how constrained the Chief Minister has become in both domestic and international engagement.
When the National Conference won last year’s election, many viewed it as a win-win arrangement.
For Kashmiris, it meant a chance to restore some accountability and breathing space. For the Centre, it ensured the return of a party known for restraint and predictability.
“The Abdullahs were never expected to cross red lines the way Kejriwal did in Delhi or an unpredictable Mehbooba Mufti was feared to do,” a senior political analyst observed.
Yet the goodwill has yielded little. Despite maintaining a cordial relationship with central leaders, Abdullah’s administration has received no significant concessions—neither in restoring statehood nor in easing bureaucratic rigidity.
Even symbolic steps, such as allowing the Chief Minister to preside over official security reviews or make senior appointments, remain blocked. The frustration is now palpable, both in private conversations and Abdullah’s recent remarks hinting at “a government that governs without authority.”
There is no cabinet in the conventional sense. Abdullah and his ministers function as an advisory council whose decisions require formal approval from the Raj Bhawan. Abdullah has acknowledged that many “cabinet” decisions taken as early as March 2025 still await sanction.
A telling episode came when the Advocate General, whom Abdullah persuaded to stay on, did not return. The Chief Minister later disclosed he was verbally told not to resume work. The note on business rules spelling out the division of powers has gone to the Raj Bhawan. A response is pending.
Even routine matters stall. Abdullah has not been able to formally appoint his adviser, Nasir Aslam Wani. The salary file keeps circulating. He also had to cut short a tourism pitch trip to Paris after clearances did not materialise.
Law and order and the police remain with the Raj Bhawan. The Home Ministry has taken the financial burden of the roughly 1.5 lakh-strong force on to its budget, including the Anti-Corruption Bureau, which is probing 10 politicians, one IAS officer and 89 JKAS officers. Administrative control of the IAS cadre also rests with the Raj Bhawan, leaving ministers to “plead” for postings and implementation.
Key institutions lie outside the Chief Minister’s reach. The Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation, a profit-making utility, is still run by bureaucrats. The Academy of Art, Culture and Languages remains beyond ministerial control. At the premier medical institute SKIMS, the director no longer functions as ex officio secretary as before 2019, slowing down decisions in the Valley’s apex hospital.
Language policy illustrates the post-2019 drift. English has become the working tongue of governance. Urdu, once the sole official language, has lost primacy. Abdullah had planned a culture policy within 100 days. It is still awaited.
The Opposition People’s Democratic Party warns that the NC risks becoming “a ceremonial caretaker, offering symbolism without substance,” and that “the window of hope is closing” after unmet promises on jobs, utilities and everyday relief.
The addition of Pahari-speaking people to the Scheduled Tribes list has reshaped reservations. Nearly 70 per cent of government jobs and admissions now fall under reserved categories. Open merit has narrowed, fuelling youth frustration. A ministerial subcommittee submitted its review in June 2025. Its fate is unclear. Abdullah’s first-year targets promised 1,120 JKPSC appointments, 5,853 SSB selections and 75 compassionate jobs. Delivery remains to be audited.
Some moves did land. The pre-2019 academic calendar was restored after consultations with private schools. Women-only spaces in state-run buses have made commuting safer, though private fleets lag.
Marriage assistance for poor girls was raised to ₹70,000. Stamp duty on land transfers within families was waived, spurring intra-family transactions and adding registration revenue. A draft procurement policy to reserve 30 per cent of government buys for local MSEs is on the table, including preferences for women-owned and SC/ST-owned firms. Impact needs tracking.
On statehood, Abdullah has a cabinet resolution and public statements.
There is little to show beyond that. Former finance officials argue the government missed a chance to press Section 83(1) of the Reorganisation Act to seek a state-like share in central taxes, which would have been a political signal as well as a fiscal gain.
With GST shifts tightening cash, borrowing may rise. Public finances increasingly resemble a bundle of centrally sponsored schemes rather than a state budget.
The closure of the national highway for more than three weeks during the apple harvest turned a governance test into an economic shock. Thousands of trucks were stranded, and produce rotted. Abdullah said that if control were his, he would have reopened the road. Losses now run into several thousand crore rupees.
Security reviews chaired by the Union Home Minister went ahead without the Chief Minister. On July 13, Abdullah was denied permission to visit the Martyrs’ Cemetery and went a day later. Photographs showed him following visiting Union ministers through flood inspections in Jammu. In another clip, BJP leader and Leader of Opposition Sunil Sharma briefed central officers in a role usually reserved for the Chief Minister. The Deputy Chief Minister has faced his own travel and security constraints.
Observers say Abdullah is “part of the administration headed by the Lieutenant Governor,” and the cabinet is “mandated only to advise.” The consequence is a government “without autonomy,” a mandate “without muscle.”
Abdullah’s critics call him too courteous for an abrasive system.
The hybrid model in which unelected authority can overrule the elected at will may have become a norm, but it is denting the image of Abdullahs and the National Conference on the ground.
For the people who voted in large numbers, this reality feels like betrayal. The National Conference, once claimed to be the bridge between New Delhi and Srinagar, now appears trapped between the two.
Even its limited initiatives—restoring the academic calendar, creating job quotas for small enterprises, and raising welfare grants—remain overshadowed by the perception that the Chief Minister is powerless to deliver real change. Omar Abdullah’s first year in office has thus exposed the structural fault lines of Jammu and Kashmir’s post-2019 governance model. His government enjoys legitimacy but not leverage. The Raj Bhawan retains command but not accountability. Between them lies an administrative vacuum that has deepened public cynicism.
As the Chief Minister himself admitted recently, “There are several areas where elected representatives should decide—but we are still waiting for that authority.”
For a region long promised a democratic revival, the wait continues.
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