After Cabinet, Cong factionalism delays Chairmen appointments
Illiterate leaders arranging fake qualification certificates from BOSE

AHMED ALI FAYYAZ

SRINAGAR, Jan 25: Process of the appointment of political heads in nearly a dozen autonomous bodies, including boards and corporations, has been suspended due to the swelling factionalism in Congress party in Jammu & Kashmir. Omar Abdullah-led coalition government’s act of appointing heads for three of such bodies from National Conference (NC) alone on January 19th is being widely interpreted in the state as an official confirmation of the internecine squabbling in the ruling coalition partner headed by Prof Saif-ud-din Soz.

With only few of them eying the two Cabinet berths and equal number of vacancies in Legislative Council, most of the NC and Congress leaders looking for “accommodation” in the coalition government have intensified lobbying in order to lay their hands on the “headless” bodies and undertakings. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s PDP-Congress coalition had previously shared these political appointments and granted the status of Ministers of State to many of the elected legislators so as to give them the sense of accommodation. In the wake of a country-wide controversy later, Government had also gone for necessary legislation on the pattern of the UPA Government at the Centre to keep a large number of these undertakings outside the ambit of the law governing office of profit and disqualification of the legislators.

It was mainly due to the list of the nominees failing to reach Chief Minister Omar Abdullah from the Congress that expansion of the Council of Ministers had been delayed in the state for over six months. In the wake of considerable criticism of inaction and ‘lack of coordination among the ruling partners’ heaping up on the head of the government, Omar Abdullah had finally extorted a list of nominees from the Congress high command and filled up all but two vacancies in his Council of Ministers in July 2009. Congress MLA from Surankot, Choudhary Mohammad Aslam, and the NC MLA from Handwara, Cowdhary Mohammad Ramzan, have been the potential contenders for the two vacant berths, though neither of them has been lucky enough to get inducted.

Even after the Government ordered three of such political appointments on January 19th, nearly 20 aspirants in the two coalition constituents have intensified lobbying for the stewardship of the autonomous bodies and undertakings. While as NC’s MLA from Habbakadal, Shameema Firdaus, was appointed as Chairperson of the headless State Commission for Woman, same party’s Mushtaq Ahmed Bukhari was appointed as Vice Chairman of J&K State Advisory Board for Development of Pahari Speaking People. NC’s MLA from Kalakote, Rachpal Singh, was appointed as Vice Chairman of the newly created J&K State Advisory Board for Develoment of Kissan.

With Ms Firdaus becoming the supreme head of the women’s statutory body, that had been headless since the day of Dr Girija Dhar’s resignation seven years ago, Bukhari and Singh would have Chief Minister as the Chairman of their respective boards. All three were declared of the status and protocol of a Minister of State. If sources in the government are to be believed, Bukhari’s accommodation has irked aspirants like the much alienated NC stalwart Mirza Abdul Rashid and the party’s third time MLA from Karnah, Kafeel-ur-Rehman.

Activity is more visible in Congress which has staked its claim on more than half of such autonomous bodies but failed to forward a list of its official nominees to the Chief Minister, mainly due to factional bickering in the party. Analysts believe that with certain changes in the organizational structure, where the buzz word these days is “one man one post”, both the patrons of the warring factions, namely Prof Soz and Ghulam Nabi Azad, would get their share.

Even as the eligibility criterion has been lowered and Higer Secondary (10+2) still stands fixed as minimum academic qualification for all these political appointments in the autonomous bodies, patrons in the Congress are reliably understood to be promoting few of their illiterate protégés.

Early Times has learned from well-placed authoritative sources that one of such illiterate aspirants from South Kashmir has, of late, succeeded in obtaining a fake Class 12th pass qualification certificate purportedly issued by J&K State Board of School Education. A senior Congress leader is believed to have put in a word for this fraudulent process as he appears to be keen to elevate the defeated candidate of Assembly Elections to the coveted position of Chairman of J&K State Handicrafts (Sales & Exports) Corporation with the status of a Minister of State.

In case matters are resolved and a consensus achieved in Congress, Government is expected to appoint Chairpersons for Advisory Board for Development of Gujjar and Bakerwal, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes Development Corporation, J&K State Handicrafts (Sales & Export) Corporation, J&K State Khadi & Village Industries Board, SICOP, SIDCO, HPMC, JAKFED and J&K State Handloom Development Corporation.

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