A live concert by Pakistani-turned-Indian Bollywood singer Adnan Sami in Srinagar on Saturday evening has triggered a full-blown Twitter war between him and former chief minister Omar Abdullah over “empty seats”.
The concert was organised by the Union Home Ministry and the J&K government in a bid torevive tourism that has reduced to a trickle due to continuing violence in the Valley.
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However, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti skipped the concert though the Union Minister of State for Home KiranRijiju reached Srinagar from New Delhi for it.
The first salvo on Twitter was fired by Omar Abdullah in response to a tweet about preparations for the concert.
“Thank you for vindication @JKPDP because I haven’t forgotten what you said about the #ZubinMehta concert. Enjoy your evening all of you,” he tweeted.
Omar was referring to the 2013 concert by Western classical music conductor Zubin Mehta’s Ehsass-e-Kashmir which was organised during his chief ministership.
The People’s Democratic Party and the separatists had then criticised the Omar government for holding the concert and described it as a “non-event”.
The Twitter war warmed up later in the evening when Omar retweeted a post with a picture “Empty seats waits for @AdnanSamiLive concert to start on the Banks of Dal Lake #Srinagar #Kashmir”.
This was followed by a series of barbs between Omar and Adnan.
Omar in his next tweet said, “The empty seats & delayed start are showing Kashmir for what it is – empty hotels, poor governance & general public despondency.”
“Why couldn’t it have just been about the music? Why did the home Ministry have to make it about propaganda?”
Adnan Sami reacted by posting some pictures of a large gathering at his concert and tweeted,
“Bro ur a former CM.. U shouldn’t be so unnerved by a music concert. U obviously have bad sources who lie 2 U – HERE are d photos !!#GrowUp”.
Omar fired back: “How does hoping you have a houseful suggest I’m unnerved? I’m glad people got to enjoy an evening of music. I used to like yours at one time”.
Adnan tweeted after the concert, “2nite Kashmir was a dream fulfilled. Srinagar, U ROCKED! Thank U 4 d Love & Generous Hospitality! Thank U 4 Singing wtMe. We made History!”
The sparring did not end here and Omar in the morning quoted a newspaper report: “100s empty chairs in ur show”. Like you said right in the beginning – I am a former CM so I’ll ignore yr 7-8 insults in 3 tweets. Thanks for coming to Srinagar. Stay safe.”
“So you finally realised huh! Der aye durust aye,” Sami responded.
Several others followers from both sides also joined the Twitter war making it worse that how it began.
