For an event touted as one of historic proportions, it met a rather swift end. The NDA governments outright rejection of the J&K assemblys autonomy motion had a touch of panic to it. Farooq Abdullah, in response to New Delhis hesitant testing of political waters in the Valley, pulled out the long-hibernating pre-53 formula. In vetoing it out of hand-whether out of dread of the stigma of attaching with an idea so anathema to the BJP as a party, or to pre-empt similar demands from states-New Delhi seemed to have put down "our man" in the Valley. And in doing so, severely cramped its own manoeuvring space. An opening sought to be created disappeared under its own debris.