Six more employees were dismissed for their alleged links with terrorists.
Many Kashmir based politicians have reacted sharply to the latest dismissal of six more employees by the administration for their alleged links with terrorists. In the recent past, J&K administration has sacked 22 employees so far for their alleged anti-national activities, inviting a lot of criticism and expression of anger by political parties in Kashmir.
These reactions are pouring in as the J&K government on Wednesday sacked six of its employees, including two J&K Police constables. Earlier, L-G Manoj Sinha ordered a designated committee of his administration to recommend all the cases under Article 311(2)(c) of the Constitution for their termination of services in case there is credible evidence for their activities before the committee.
The government has said that all the sacked employees in Jammu and Kashmir have been fired after the committee was convinced that their presence in different wings of the administration was detrimental to the security of the nation. Former Chief Minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti reacted by a series of tweets regarding the dismissal of government employees by the J&K administration. She said, “No end to GOI’s farmaans for disempowering people of J&K. Contrary to GOI’s tall claims of getting investment to create employment, they are deliberately laying off government employees despite knowing that people in J&K rely on government jobs for their livelihood.”
In another tweet she said, “Hounding Kashmiris endlessly deflates their fake narrative that all is well in J&K. ‘Links to militants’ is the new excuse used to dispossess & humiliate Kashmiris.” PAGD spokesman and CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami described the dismissal of employees as reckless and arbitrary. He said that such decisions of the administration are sending wrong signals to the dedicated J&K government employees and bringing question marks on their integrity.
Sharp reaction was seen from an unexpected quarter of J&K Apni Party which has been dubbed in Kashmir as the ‘B’ team of the BJP. Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari said that it is not that 22 employees from Kashmir have been sacked, but the “central government has basically silenced 82 lakh people of Kashmir”. He leveled serious allegations against the present administration in Jammu and Kashmir and alleged that the bureaucrats posted here were selling the resources of this erstwhile state.
He said that these bureaucrats from Bihar and UP will have to go back and after the elected government comes to power; they will have to answer for whatever they have done with the natural resources and with the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Altaf Bukhari told the media, “The way they have sold out J&K power projects, minerals and other resources are the worst kind of examples. They are doing everything on their ‘whims and fancies’. The real representatives and stakeholders here have been sidelined.”
Raising concerns, he said that in the entire administration, all the Muslim officers, both in police and civil administration, have been sidelined and said that it is a dangerous trend to disempower local people by such tactics of the central bureaucracy. Bukhari was quoted in the local media on Friday as saying, “I think all the people of J&K have been terminated and not only the 22 government employees. Where are they in the administration? There were scores of Kashmiri officers in police and civil administration. Where are the Muslim officers today? Who says 22 people have been terminated? I’m saying that 82 lakh people of Kashmir have been terminated. People from UP and Bihar will not govern us. No one from UP can come and educate us about governance, we know what is happening in UP.”
There is a brewing anger in the Jammu region also against the central government and the BJP, as the common man feels that there is no change in their favour on the ground following the abrogation of Article 370. It is one of the reasons that rumours that Reliance is going to open over 100 stores in Jammu city, resulted in a Jammu bandh on 22 September, and it has been the first public reaction against the decisions of the central government so far from Jammu which has always supported the BJP for its all moves against Kashmir.
The Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry has already shown its resentment against the decision of the J&K administration to cancel the annual Darbar Move to Jammu, as it used to help them in business and was one of the main sources of economy for the Jammu region.