Srinagar, Dec 23 (NationPress) Frustrated by the demonstration led by his party's Lok Sabha representative, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, opposing reservations despite assurances from Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah regarding their rationalization, the Chief Minister invoked the words of Rudyard Kipling as he sought patience and faith from his party leaders and supporters.

Following the anti-reservation protest at the Chief Minister's residence in Gupkar, Srinagar, Omar Abdullah expressed on X, "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too."

"If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about, don't deal in lies, or being hated, don't give way to hating. And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream—and not make dreams your master. If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken, Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!' If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch. If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son."

There is little doubt that despite the Omar Abdullah-led National Conference government forming a cabinet sub-committee to propose changes to the current reservation policy, the protests led by his own Lok Sabha member should cause embarrassment for the Chief Minister.

The challenge with his party members and leaders appears to be their disregard for the fundamental reality that Jammu and Kashmir functions as a union territory, and the elected government does not possess the same authority as a fully-fledged state.

In his pursuit of restoring statehood, Omar Abdullah seems to have acknowledged that it will require time, and until then, he anticipates his party leaders and supporters to maintain their composure.