Conflict

Online petition against Omar’s UC Berkeley visit calls him a ‘client politician’

Faces protests at the venue, called a ‘war criminal’ 

Various journalists, academicians, researchers and scholars around the world had started an online petition against the invite of the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) to former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to speak on their campus.

The event was named ‘Path Forward in Kashmir ‘ which was being organized by the Institute of South Asia Studies, UC Berkeley.


The petition called Omar a ‘dynastic politician’ who is one of the many ‘client politicians’ India has cultivated in Kashmir to provide a civilian facade to the military occupation.

“Berkeley is wilfully providing a platform to Mr Omar Abdullah and allowing him to masquerade as the representative of the people of the occupied Kashmir, which he is clearly not,” reads the petition.

“We expect Berkeley to do their due diligence in the future and consider the repercussions of allowing client politicians such as Omar Abdullah the privilege of speaking on behalf of the people whom he does not represent.”

However, Omar, who is also the working president of the National Conference had to face protests at the venue and was confronted by protesters.

One of the protesters called him a ‘war criminal’ who should be ‘taken to the International Criminal Court.’


The Google Doc ‘Omar doesn’t represent Kashmir’ till now had 145 signatories from all around the globe.

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