Six-Year Wait Ends: Omar Abdullah's 'Faxgate' Remark Stirs J&K Politics

Six-Year Wait Ends: Omar Abdullah’s ‘Faxgate’ Remark Stirs J&K Politics

“We tried to form the government once through a fax machine but that did not work out. Please keep technology at the office, we will do it in our own way,” the CM-elect told reporters on Saturday.

As Jammu and Kashmir waits for its first elected government in six years to take charge, almost a week since the National Congress (NC)-Congress combine swept to power, Chief Minister-elect Omar Abdullah’s answer to what is holding up government formation in the Union Territory has evoked memories of the infamous “faxgate” episode.

“There is a procedure. Jammu and Kashmir has been under President’s Rule for the last six years and a Cabinet note, which will be sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan and Union Home Ministry, is needed to end it,” Abdullah told reporters on Saturday when asked about why there was a delay in his oath ceremony in an age of technology. “Then, there are holidays. Today is Dussehra and tomorrow is Sunday. God willing, we will take oath on Wednesday.”

In an apparent reference to the 2018 incident where then state Governor Satya Pal Malik did not “acknowledge” a letter faxed by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti staking claim to form the government with the support of the NC and Congress, Abdullah said the UT would be in trouble if his government was formed through fax. “We tried to form the government once through a fax machine but that did not work out. Please keep technology at the office, we will do it in our own way,” he said.

After the BJP walked out of its alliance with the PDP in June 2018, Jammu and Kashmir was placed under Governor’s Rule and its Assembly was kept in suspended animation. Five months later, the PDP, NC, and Congress announced a grand alliance of “like-minded secular parties”.

On November 21, 2018, Mufti wrote a letter and faxed it to Malik claiming the support of 56 MLAs. However, there was no acknowledgement from the Raj Bhavan. Posting an image of the letter on X, Mufti wrote, “Have been trying to send this letter to Rajbhavan. Strangely the fax is not received, Tried to contact Governor on phone. Not available. Hope you see it @jandkgovernor.”

A little after Mufti’s post, Peoples Conference chief Sajad Ghani Lone also took to X and claimed his WhatsApp text to the Governor’s personal assistant staking claim to form the government with the support of the BJP and 18 other MLAs had not been answered. Lone’s party had just two MLAs. Lone sent the letter while he was flying home from London.

However, Malik ended all possibilities for government formation after he dissolved the Assembly that evening citing the “impossibility of forming a stable government by the coming together of political parties with competing ideologies”, the “fragile” security situation, and reports of horse-trading. He, however, did not speak about Mufti’s and Lone’s letters.

A day later, Malik said he did not receive Mufti’s fax as it was a holiday. “Fax is not an issue. It was Eid. They (Mufti and Abdullah) should know that the office remains closed (on holidays). Let alone a fax operator, I did not even have a cook. There was no system,” he said.

His justification did not go down well with leaders, with both Abdullah and Mufti questioning how the Governor had typed a letter to dissolve the Assembly on a holiday. “I have served as CM and there were holidays but my house was never empty. The staff did their work. This is a strange fax machine that works and stops as per different directions. It does not receive letters for government formation but can send the letter to dissolve the Assembly. The fax machine has ‘strangulated democracy’,” Abdullah said at the time. Source

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