Nationalist Conference politician and former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir has conspicuously deleted his Twitter account. Omar Abdullah, who has recently been released from preventive detention that was imposed after Article 370 was revoked in the now Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, seems to have deleted his Twitter account late Wednesday evening.
The deactivation of his Twitter account comes after on Wednesday afternoon, Omar Abdullah had tweeted a warning to Kashmiri radicals about cheering China in the ongoing stand-off between India and China in the Galwan Valley of Ladakh.
In the tweet, Omar Abdullah had warned Kashmiri radicals about the temptation to look towards China. “Those Kashmiris tempted to look towards China as some sort of saviour need only Google the plight of Uighur Muslims. Be careful what you wish for….”.
In the stand-off between India and China, many radical Muslims from Kashmir were seen cheering for China and looking towards China as a country that might help them in their nefarious designs. However, Omar Abdullah had sounded off a caution to the radicals saying that China is no ally of Muslims considering the plight of Uighur Muslims.
Omar Abdullah had interesting disabled replies to his tweet which warned Kashmiri Muslims. Clearly, Abdullah was sure of the abuse he might face at the hands of the radical Kashmiris and had thus, disabled the responses to his tweet. Twitter has a new feature where accounts can limit who is allowed to respond to their tweet and in the current tweet, Abdullah had limited to only those who are mentioned in his tweet being able to response. Since nobody was mentioned in his tweet, it would essentially mean that nobody would be able to tweet a response to him.
That the account was deleted after a tweet in which he had disabled responses points to the fact that Abdullah might have decided to quit Twitter to avoid the blowback he may receive for this tweet not only from Kashmiri radicals but also from Pakistanis.
This is not the first time that a member of the opposition parties has spooked out after tweeting against China. In May, Congress leader and Leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha – Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury took to Twitter to issue some warnings to China and praise the Indian forces. However, he soon deleted the tweet.
The Congress leader, slamming China, had warned the communist nation about how Indian forces can ‘defang the venomous snakes’ like China and stated that the entire world was watching the sinister designs of China while calling them “Yellow expansionist”. Chowdhury also urged the Modi government to accord to diplomatic recognition to Taiwan “without much delay”. Interestingly, this tweet was also subsequently deleted.
It appears that for certain opposition parties, tweeting harsh words against China would be considered forbidden fruit since in their political hatred for Prime Minister Modi, any praise for the Indian Armed Forces, the Nation or even harsh words against an enemy nation are considered off limits.
Update: Later in the day on 17 June, Omar Abdullah’s Twitter account was reactivated.
