The duo was also missing from the ‘At Home’ functions hosted by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha in Jammu and Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Pandurang K Pole in Srinagar.
Abdullah and Mufti, who served as the Chief Ministers prior to the abrogation of J-K’s limited autonomy in August 2019, chose to make no comments on their Twitter handles. Their party handles also remained quiet.
Both were under detention on the previous Republic Day in 2020, along with a few other politicians. Most of the former legislators, ministers, and three former chief ministers, including Abdullah’s father, were detained by the government in August 2019 and some were released after nearly a year.
Abdullah, who is the vice-president of the National Conference (NC), and Mufti, who is the president of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), had last wished the people on a Republic Day in January 2019, months before the abrogation of the Articles 370 and 35A.
On 25 January 2019, Mufti had tweeted to greet people: “Warm Republic day greetings to all. Let us strive to strengthen the diversity and unity of this great nation. #HappyRepublicDay2019.”
Abdullah also had written a congratulatory tweet in 2019. “Our republic is not about tolerating differences, it’s about celebrating differences, differences of religion, language, culture & political beliefs. Let’s make 2019 the year we reclaim our republic #RepublicDayIndia .”
The exception yesterday was the Jammu unit of the NC, headed by Devender Singh Rana, which hoisted the tri-colour at the party’s Jammu headquarter.
Kashmir valley had wore a deserted look yesterday as a complete and spontaneous shutdown was observed across all districts.
However, official celebratory functions were held under the heavy presence of security forces in all district headquarters and other government establishments. The mobile internet services were snapped for
