J&K Chief Secretary’s remarks on politicians trigger controversy

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam’s remarks that “no one cried” over the detention of mainstream political leaders Saturday triggered a political storm in the union territory (UT) with leaders hitting back saying the assertions were baseless and politically motivated.

Subrahmanyam had said that Jammu and Kashmir was a “broken state and there was no system in place due to years of misgovernance, corruption and unbelievable levels of fraud committed by leaders of mainstream parties and separatist organizations.”

Hitting back at the CS, regional National Conference rejected the allegations saying these were intended to evade the concerns of the public on the ‘failures’ of J&K administration on every conceivable matrix.

“The language used by 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,” the NC spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said in a statement.

He said that such sordid allegations from a civil servant put a big question mark on his professionalism, work culture and impartiality.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) termed the remarks uncalled for and utterly flagitious. In a statement, a spokesman of the party alleged that the CS had come to Kashmir with a colonial mindset and being the chief executioner of RSS in Kashmir.

“It was ironic that he is finding fault with the entire population of Jammu and Kashmir 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 alleged.

“The BJP and its chosen bureaucrats are not only heaping insults, humiliation, and atrocities on the people of Jammu and Kashmir but they are also misleading and exploiting the so-called nationalist sentiments in the rest of the country," the spokesperson added.

CPI (M) while terming the CS’s utterances as highly unacceptable questioned 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.

“Leveling baseless allegations against politicians without any credible evidence is fraught with serious consequences,” a spokesperson of the party said.

J&K Peoples Conference led by Sajjad Lone advised the CS to speak “within his pay and grade.” “Kashmir has this problem where people get delusions of grandeur. It seems 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,” a party spokesperson said.

“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,” he said.

Even the newly launched party, Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP), which is believed to be a proxy of the BJP, blamed the senior-most bureaucrat for breach of service rules “which are legally and ethically unwarranted.”

“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,” JKAP senior leader and former minister Ghulam Hassan Mir said.