Srinagar, Mar 18: Former chief minister Omar Abdullah on Monday alleged that bureaucrats and officers of Jammu and Kashmir, who favoured early assembly polls in the state, were being threatened for expressing their opinion.
In a series of tweets, Omar hit out at top bureaucrats in the state alleging that they were scuttling democracy in Jammu and Kashmir adding that “officers who are in favour of early state polls are being browbeaten and threatened.”
“One day we will talk about the cabal of officers in J&K who for their own selfish reasons have taken it upon themselves to scuttle democracy in the state,” Omar tweeted.
“Some have no stakes in the state & some are looking at post retirement postings in cushy appointments. Whatever their reasons they have chosen to put their personal interest ahead of the greater good,” read one of his tweet.
“I’m shocked to hear how officers who have supported early assembly elections are being browbeaten & threatened using their performance appraisals against them to get them to toe the line,” Omar said in another tweet.
“No honest officer should fear these threats. We must put the greater good ahead of our personal preferences & benefits. Those people making the threats will not remain in the state for very long,” he added.
The Election Commission while announcing the polling schedule for general elections and Assembly elections in some states had announced that only Lok Sabha polls will be held in the state.
The National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) targeted the Centre over the decision and Omar at the time had said that the move shows how the BJP-PDP government mishandled the state.
Sources said in their interaction with the ECI, some of the deputy commissioners and the SSP’s had informed the ECI that the situation is not conducive for the Assembly election. They said some officers from Kupwara and Anantnag districts of Kashmir were, however, in favour of the holding Assembly elections simultaneously with Lok Sabha elections.
According to agency reports one of the advisors of the governor speaking on the condition of anonymity said that each officer presented his view according to his own assessment of the situation. “There was not any unanimous view about the elections. In fact, some of the officers asked for more security forces companies,” he said.
Meanwhile, addressing a public gathering at Damhal Hanji Pura, in south Kashmir’s Kulgam District, Omar said that all through his stint as chief minister, he never felt the need to ban Jamaat-e-Islami.
“In 2010 when the situation was tumultuous, we brought the situation to normalcy, but we didn’t ban JeI. Their schools and other institutions kept running.”
Flaying the ‘new-fanged gimmickry’ of Mehbooba Mufti, Omar said, “Now a days she is saying that she too might be arrested. What will she be arrested for? This assertion hints towards some tacit match fixing between BJP and PDP. We in Kashmir have been hearing a lot about match fixing.”
“I feel that the ban on JeI is thought-out match fixing between BJP and PDP to help BJP save its face value in rest of the country and also help PDP milk the situation here in Kashmir. Nobody is going to be arrested. People are now privy to such election gimmicks and political tears as are only seen in their eyes at the time of elections,” he added.
“We didn’t see them in tears in 2016. At that time she mocked the miseries of people with her ‘milk and toffee comments’. It is the same Mehbooba who refused to recompense the person who was used as human shield, given the fact that state human rights commission had recommended a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the victim. Where was her sympathy then? Case against Mirwaiz was registered in 2017; it didn’t happen in my tenure as chief minister, neither during my father’s. It was she who unleashed plethora of miseries on people in the shape of decreasing the quota of ration, implementation of GST, use of pellet guns, and what not,” he said.
