SRINAGAR — Jammu and Kashmir’s Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo and Law Secretary Achal Sethi separately approached the Legislative Assembly Secretariat seeking that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s resolution on restoration of statehood not be taken up, triggering a row over the role of the bureaucracy in the functioning of the elected House.
The communications were sent three days after Abdullah moved the resolution, which had subsequently been admitted for consideration by the Assembly. The officials cited the matter being sub judice and sought that the resolution be disallowed, according to reports.
Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather questioned the intervention, saying he was not aware of any precedent in which government officials had written to the Assembly Secretariat seeking to prevent legislative business from being taken up.
Rather also questioned the fact that the communications had been sent without the approval of the minister concerned.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who also holds the Law portfolio, said he had no prior knowledge of the Law Department’s communication and learned about the matter only after being informed by the Assembly Secretariat.
“Speaker sir, I'm the Law Minister and also Chief Minister but I have no knowledge of my bureaucracy sending an opinion to you on my resolution. I do not know on whose instructions it was sent,” Abdullah said during the Assembly proceedings.
Questioning how officials could issue an opinion against a resolution moved by the Chief Minister and Law Minister without his knowledge, Abdullah linked the episode to Jammu and Kashmir’s present status as a Union Territory.
“Can this happen in any state, where the chief minister moves a resolution and its own bureaucracy acts against it? This can happen only in a Union Territory,” he said.
The issue also drew a reaction from National Conference MLA and party chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq, who questioned how senior bureaucrats could approach the Assembly Speaker seeking to stop a resolution moved by the elected Chief Minister without the knowledge of the concerned minister.
In a social media post, Sadiq said the episode raised questions about accountability to the people and argued that the development itself highlighted the need for restoration of statehood.
The controversy unfolded as the Assembly took up discussion on Abdullah’s resolution seeking the immediate and urgent restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
The resolution was subsequently passed by the Assembly amid protests and a walkout by BJP legislators. The BJP had objected to references in the resolution to earlier Assembly resolutions, including the June 26, 2000 autonomy resolution.
The episode has brought renewed attention to the institutional relationship between the elected government, the Legislative Assembly and the bureaucracy under Jammu and Kashmir’s present Union Territory framework.
The resolution’s passage means that the Assembly has formally conveyed its demand for restoration of full statehood to the Government of India, while the controversy over the bureaucratic communications has added another dimension to the ongoing statehood debate.
The article first appeared on The Kashmir Pulse at https://kashmirpulse.com/politics/jk-bureaucrats-seek-to-block-statehood-resolution-triggering-assembly-row/116545.html
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