Jammu, Mar 20: National Conference vice president and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Monday stated that nobody was advocating for government jobs to the hardcore terrorists but he or his party would also never support punitive measures against their (terrorists’) kin.
He was replying to media queries after addressing a public rally at Nagrota here.
“Is it fair for me to punish you for the crimes of your father or (for) the crimes of your son?…..The law of natural justice is not that the relatives are punished for the crimes of someone else. No jobs were given (to terrorists). Nobody is advocating that hardcore militants should be given government jobs. But it is also wrong to punish somebody just because they have the misfortune of being related to a terrorist. This is not the way to win the hearts and minds of the people. This is not something that we will ever support,” he said when asked to comment on a recent government statement about “jobs given to terrorists and their relatives” by the previous governments in J&K.
“I’m not going to get into a war of words on this. However if in lakhs of appointments, you find forty-seven (employees), then that is next to nothing,” Omar said in reply to a query about another statement about “dismissal of 47 employees for their involvement in anti-national activities.”
ON JKSSB CONTROVERSY
Omar alleged that the government played with the future of JKSSB job aspirants by “trying to give the contract to a company which was blacklisted across the country.”
“I fail to understand the intention of the government behind this move. It has been claimed that the contract (to the company) has been cancelled. However the youth are still not satisfied with it. As I have earlier stated in my address, this government is not at all trying to redress the people’s grievances in earnest. We want a thorough probe as to who brought (hired) Aptech here, where the bungling happened and who was responsible for it (bungling). The youth should be reassured that justice would be delivered to them and their future would not be put at stake,” former Chief Minister said.
ON IMPERATIVE CID VERIFICATION FOR CONTRACT RENEWAL
With regard to the query pertaining to the government directive that verification was imperative (for the contractors) to get their contract renewed, Omar alleged, “Though I’m not aware of this particular issue yet this is a fact that the government of the day is in the habit of misusing police. Those contractors, whose companies are blacklisted, are being engaged while honest and efficient contractors are being harassed.”
He stated that the effort should be to engage those contractors who could work with honesty, without paying or seeking commission to address people’s issues. “More is the involvement of police in civil issues, more will be the problems,” Omar claimed.
‘RAHUL SAID NOTHING WRONG’
NC vice president also found nothing wrong with the statement of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi vis-a-vis victims of sexual assault.