Srinagar:
"I know I have to build my credibility brick by brick again," said Omar Abdullah in an interview to NDTV a month ago.
Today, the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir has little to prove that things have changed. In the last 3 months, 85 civilians have been killed in a cycle of violence that seems to feed off new tension everyday.
And despite a change at the top guard of the police and bureaucracy, the situation on the ground has been unravelling into one of near anarchy.
Today, the Chief Minister let it be known that despite the Delhi snub of a "governance-deficit", he wasn't planning to quit - at least not now.
But the writing on the wall is stark. As protests spill over onto the streets, the airport has been shut down for the first time in 11 years - after the Kargil War. And the highway from Jammu to Srinagar has also been blocked by protests.
In other words, the Valley is cut off from the country.
And on the streets is the raw, indiscriminate rage of angry young men, women and even children where even the rumours of a Quran being desecrated in distant America get channelised into anti- state anger.
There is near consensus that the Chief Minister's emotionally distant style has been costly.
The failure to reach out to families of those killed or even the children injured in hospital - save one tightly controlled visit - has widened the gap between the people and India's youngest Chief Minister.
It also got him the tag of being away from state far too often.
"If the Chief Minister has alienated the people, we want a more effective political process which can only be done by a more competent and accountable chief minister," BJP leader Ravishankar Prasad said.
New Delhi too has spoken in multiple voices, taking its disagreements on AFSPA public and then dragging its feet on any decision.
First expectations were raised of what government sources referred to as "an Eid peace package". But the CCS failed to meet as scheduled on Eid morning.
By the early evening, a rally led by moderate separatists spun out of control on the ground.
By the time the CCS finally met on Monday, they were dealing with a brand new variable, provoked by reports of the Quran being desecrated in the US.
Today, on the eve of the all-party meeting, these differences were underlined by the Air Chief.
"Whatever decision the government takes on AFSPA will be done only after ensuring legal protection to the Armed Forces," said PV Naik, Chief of the Air Staff.
There is a third dimension that also makes Kashmir of 2010 different from 1989 - radicalisation and religion which is playing a much greater role than ever before.
Shades of these were seen in the sectarian counter violence after the Quran controversy erupted.
In this volatile environment government's options are limited but with near paralysis of response the question must be asked: Did political mishandling lead to this virtual breakdown of control in the state?