J&K parties censure CS’s remarks over political leaders’ detention

J&K political parties on Saturday censured the remarks of J&K Chief Secretary (CS) BVR Subrahmanyam against political leaders in J&K.

Allegations baseless, politically motivated: NC

   

In a statement, National Conference rejected the CS’s allegations as “baseless and politically motivated”. The party spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said it cannot be a coincidence that BJP has been “parroting the same line of thought” over the past one year.

“The language used by the CS while hurling allegations against mainstream political parties is exactly similar to what BJP is saying. If he is so keen to be a politician, I would suggest that he quit his job and join politics. With the kind of comments he has made on the J&K’s situation post August 5, the veiled political affiliations of J&K’s top bureaucrats have finally come to fore,” said Imran.

He said “such sordid allegations” from a civil servant put a question mark on his “professionalism, work culture and impartiality.” “It is quite alarming where a serving civil servant is overtly spewing venom against the entire mainstream political spectrum to hide abject failures of the administration under him since 20 June 2018,” he said.

He said it was “quite laughable” to see the CS put the burden of his failures on people’s representatives. “The allegations should not be seen in isolation. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that such statements emanating from the top administrative positions seek to give credence to its unresponsive, undemocratic, unrepresentative rule in J&K,” he said.

The National Conference said let the CS come up with a report card of his performance. “I bet it will be his poor performance on every single front from health care, and education to providing succor to the poor and deprived during these ongoing pandemic times.”

Remarks utterly flagitious: PDP

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) termed the CS’s remarks uncalled for and utterly flagitious. In a statement, a party spokesman said the CS has come to J&K with a “colonial mindset”. He said it was ironical that the CS was finding fault with the entire population of J&K while running the “most corrupt administration” that the state has ever witnessed.

“The Chief Secretary is heading a cabal of officers who are affiliated with RSS and are enforcing their agenda in Kashmir. He should first explain to the people what happened to the multi-crore health insurance scam affecting five lakh government employees in J&K? Who was responsible for taking that scam to the administrative council? And why it was all of a sudden scrapped and what action has been taken against the involved officers? What has happened to Chenab Valley Power Corporation scams and why were those first approved and later canceled? Who were the officers involved?” said the spokesman.

He said the BJP and its chosen bureaucrats in Kashmir were not only heaping insults and atrocities on people but they were also misleading and exploiting the “so-called nationalist sentiments” in rest of the country.

“It is unfortunate that they have now started to target the Muslim officers in the state administration in a focused manner and are hounding them. The CS is trying to establish the norms of other states where Chief Ministers and Union Ministers are in the jails and where they have been found involved in all kinds of scams from corruption to rape…his only fame to glory is establishing a culture of impunity, polarised administration, systematic sidelining of local officers, fragmenting of bureaucracy on feudal lines and perpetuating the quid pro quo culture of rewarding incompetence,” spokesperson said.

CS victim of delusions of grandeur: PC

Peoples Conference termed the Chief Secretary’s utterances as “delusions of grandeur.” In a statement, party spokesperson Adnan Ashraf Mir said the CS said “needs to speak within his pay and grade.”

“Kashmir has this problem where people get delusions of grandeur. It sees like the Chief Secretary is the latest victim of the same set of delusions. We extend our sympathy and hope he comes out of it. If the utterances of the Chief Secretary are any indicators of what he thinks of himself and this is what he briefs his bosses in Delhi, then Delhi doesn’t need enemies in Kashmir. Talk of inventing a lie and then believing in it. He takes the cake,” said Mir.

He said last one year has been the “tyranny of the unelected.” “An IAS officer whose only achievement in life is that he cracked an exam will never know the struggle of fighting and winning elections. Sitting in ivory towers lecturing politicians is easy, Let these officers come on the streets to display their public support now that they have aspirations of replacing the elected representatives,” Mir said.

Remain apolitical, stick to your mandate: JKAP

Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) senior leader Ghulam Hassan Mir censured the “political remarks” made by the Chief Secretary. In a statement Mir said the comments tantamount to “breach of service rules and are legally and ethically unwarranted.”

“All the government employees including bureaucrats are supposed to remain apolitical and give people a fair deal of governance which is entirely lacking in J&K,” Mir said.

He said an officer of the rank of chief secretary in J&K seems to have forgotten about service conduct rules which warrant serving officers not to talk about issues pertaining to politics and instead should work for strengthening the institutions of governance on the ground.

Blaming politicians for corruption unwarranted: CPI-M

The CPI-M said the statement of the CS blaming political parties for mis-governance and corruption in J&K was highly un-acceptable. “We want to ask him what his administration has done to eradicate corruption in J&K for the last more than two years when there is no elected government in the region,” said a statement issued by the party.

It said leveling baseless allegations against politicians without any credible evidence was fraught with serious consequences. “Bureaucrats come and go and it is not the mandate of a CS to level baseless allegations against elected representatives. If frauds have been committed by some persons who have remained in authority, what stops the administration to make those public and book the offenders?” said the statement. “There is a wide perception among common people that the administration has become more corrupt after the abrogation of Article 370 and BJP government’s claim to give Kashmir corruption-free administration and governance was simply rhetoric and has proved mere a hoax. The CS needs to give some attention to this aspect instead of leveling unfounded allegations against the elected representatives,” the statement said.

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