A new reality: Omar Abdullah at a press briefing, Jan. 2

In Kashmir’s Budgam, the hoisting of the tricolour on Republic Day by District Development Council (DDC) chairperson Nazir Ahmad Khan was marked by a conspicuous absence—none of the district’s four MLAs attended the event. This sparked an angry reaction from Khan, who urged locals to question their representatives—all belonging to the ruling National Conference (NC). “Despite invitations, they didn’t give a hoot,” Khan, now an Independent but formerly with the Peoples Democratic Party, remarked in his address. Within the NC, too, tensions simmer. In Bandipora, the party’s DDC chairperson, Abdul Gani Bhat, was left to cut a sorry figure as both NC legislators skipped the function.