BJP Minister’s segregating Kashmiri Officers

• Saffron party’s ministers decline Kashmiris, Muslims as Admin Secys
• Kashmiri officers threaten mass resignation, raise issue with ministers, to take up matter with PM

The Secretary-level Kashmiri officers Monday threatened mass resignation after they were conveyed that no Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister was willing to take them as administrative secretaries in their ministries.
According to sources, after they were conveyed the decision of the rightwing BJP ministers, they raised the issue with some ministers of the BJP’s ruling ally Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who informed Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti about the development.
The CM directed the ministers to pay heed to the grievances of these officers and promised to look into the matter, the sources said.
They said the Secretary-level Kashmiri officers told the ministers that they would call upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi at New Delhi and seek to know why the BJP ministers were not ready to take them as administrative secretaries, and why their competence and loyalty was under question.
Talking to Kashmir Post, a Secretary-level Kashmiri officer, who did not wish to be quoted, said it was unfortunate that such a level of communal hatred was being generated at the highest seat of power – civil secretariat, despite the fact that Jammu Kashmir is a Muslim-majority state.
He said Kashmiri officers were being kept away from important departments like Planning, Finance, Home, Power and Housing and Urban Development.
“We don’t have any objection to non-Kashmiris or non-Muslims holding these posts but why will a BJP minister refuse to have a Muslim or a Kashmiri as an administrative secretary,” the Kashmiri officer said.
Presently, the State cadre of IAS has 77 serving officers of which 18 have been inducted from the Kashmir Administrative Services and of these 17 are serving as administrative secretaries in addition to three KAS Super Time Scale officers working as secretaries.
The agitated Kashmiri officers said they were not for making the issue communal as never in the history of Kashmir had anyone objected to the posting of 20 non-Muslims as Divisional Commissioners of Kashmir.
Interestingly, not a single Kashmiri officer has been posted as Divisional Commissioner, Jammu since 1980 as their appointments have always been stonewalled.
The secretary-level Kashmiri officers said, forget Kashmiris, the BJP ministers were not even taking Muslims from Jammu as administrative secretaries.
According to sources, the bias against the Kashmiri and Muslim officers was quite visible which does not augur well for the administrative functioning and security situation of the conflict-hit state like Jammu Kashmir where the officers were feeling alienated.
The sources said the regional and religious bias was quite apparent as none of the Kashmiri or Muslim officers gets elevated to be posted as a Divisional Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner of Jammu or Deputy Commissioner of Leh.
The sources said the Kashmiri officers were pitching for at least 50 percent quota in important administrative positions, and posting of Muslim officers in Jammu Division and Hindu officers in Kashmir to create an air of communal harmony.
In the PDP-BJP coalition government led by Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, when a Muslim Police officer from Jammu was proposed as a Superintendent of district in a cabinet meeting, a BJP minister put his foot down saying there was no question of him taking a Muslim as an SP in his district.
Similarly, after Mehbooba Mufti took over as the Chief Minister of the State and a Muslim IAS officer was proposed as a Deputy Commissioner of a district, another senior minister of BJP stalled his appointment.
This was despite the fact that when top Kashmiri officers like Abdul Salam Bhat and Muhammad Sayeed Khan were transferred from Udhampur, people in the district staged massive protests against the decisions of the government.
Similarly, when another Kashmiri officer, Basharat Ahmad Dhar was transferred from the cold desert region of Ladakh, people in Ladakh staged protests against the government’s decision.
BJP’s General Secretary (Organisation), Ashok Koul said there have been no directions from the party high command to any ministers against taking Kashmiris or Muslims as administrative secretaries.
He said if any of the BJP ministers had declined to take Kashmiri officers as administrative secretaries, they must have done it in their personal capacity although no BJP minister can do it.
“However, there are some bad people at every level,” Koul said.