All eyes on Raj Bhawan’s judgment in appointment of CVC, VCs

Govt’s obstinacy as well as PDP’s dissent has to be dispassionate

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jun 8: Broadly, there are two types of Governors in India: Career bureaucrats and public servants including retired military, Police and intelligence officers; and, politicians, or call them public men. Being ‘agents’ of the Central government, they genetically and instinctively act in the direction of the breeze blowing from the North Block and the South Block in New Delhi while taking crucial decisions. In the special status state of Jammu and Kashmir, we have had both. Some of them act blindly to enforce New Delhi’s writ but others stick to their own conscience in making assessment on politically sensitive matters.

L K Jha, in 1975-77, was no exception. Head of the Emergency era government at the Centre, Indira Gandhi, wanted him to dislodge Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, following withdrawal of support by J&K Pradesh Congress Committee, and restore Government to a nominee of her party. Sheikh called upon the Governor to dissolve the Assembly and hold fresh elections. The pro-establishment intelligentsia all over the country wanted Jha to go by the Centre’s advice and unseat Sheikh through Mufti’s no-confidence motion. Sheikh firmly stuck to his wicket and argued that the Governor was legally and constitutionally bound to dissolve the Assembly and hold fresh elections on Chief Minister’s advice.

Amid a nation-wide controversy, Jha went by Sheikh’s advice. He dissolved the Assembly. A year later, he further established his credentials as a conscientious Governor when he conducted the history’s fairest ever election in J&K---unbeaten till date. By the time elections happened in June 1977, Morarji Desai’s Janata Party (JP) had taken over at the Centre. An opportunistic alliance between almost all the opposition parties in the state and the JP Government at the Centre joined hands to defeat Sheikh. Sheikh’s National Conference swept the polls in Kashmir and returned to power with a thumping majority.

Middle of the next decade witnessed Jagmohan taking all the diktats from Indira Gandhi-led Congress government at the Centre. It did not take him long to dismiss Sheikh’s successor, Farooq Abdullah, who had grabbed the throne with a massive mandate after his father’s death in 1982. Former chief executive of Delhi Development Authority, Jagmohan, was a tropical plant in a temperate zone as the NC’s votebank in Valley knew him only for his demolition of Turkman Gate in Delhi. Inspite of emerging as a great builder---in the Governor’s rule following Shah’s termination---Jagmohan failed to correct his image of being “New Delhi’s agent”.

None of the career politicians manned Raj Bhawan in the last 23 years of armed insurgency.  Still, even the most unexpected of them, like Lt Gen (retired) S K Sinha, did one or the other act to pose themselves as guardians of the constitution as well as protectors of Raj Bhawan’s sanctity, integrity and propriety.

Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed forcefully pushed fresh entrant Rafi Mir’s nomination as a Member of Legislative Council. Governor Sinha returned the file with his recorded objection, making it clear that Mr Mir had no contribution to education, science, art and culture or social or cooperative service as was mandatory for the nominee under section 5o sub-section 3 of the J&K Constitution. Mir was nominated a year later--- only after Mufti pressed hard and repeated the Government’s recommendations.

It is purely for Governor N N Vohra whether to base his judgment merely on “legality and technicality” of the law and a signal from the corridors of power in Srinagar and New Delhi or to uphold the wider canvas of propriety in judging recommendations of a high power committee before appointing Chief Vigilance Commissioner and the two Commissioners for State Vigilance Commission. Contrary to the three Government members’ recommendations in favour of the outgoing DGP, Kuldeep Khoda, as CVC besides two retired IAS officers (RK Jerath and MS Khan) as VCs, PDP President, Mehbooba Mufti, has recorded her dissent to Mr Khoda’s nomination. Wild, yet serious, allegations have been leveled to block Mr Khoda’s appointment.

Meaningfully, Ms Mufti has avoided making comment on Mr Khan’s nomination as VC. Khan happens to be intimately close to several leaders of her party and falls in close relation of two key functionaries of the PDP. Late last year, when Omar Abdullah’s government called for nominations for the SVC top brass from General Administration Department (GAD)--- regulator of KAS, IAS and other civil services in J&K---Mr Khan put his own name on the top of the list. Then Commissioner-Secretary GAD, Mr Khan was due for retirement in next few months. This blocked entry of a number of IAS officers who too were about to reach superannuation and were not in any manner inferior to Mr Khan in competence, honesty and integrity.

Ms Mufti did not stop with her critique of the outgoing DGP. She assiduously projected retired Financial Commissioner Samuel Varghese as well as retired DGP (Prison) Dr Ashok Bhan as the “most suitable incumbents” for the top position of CVC.

Before treading on, one needs a rehash of the not-so-old past. Like invariably all the successive Chief Ministers, head of the PDP-Congress coalition Mr Mufti made it a point that Varghese did not get a very important position. He retired unceremoniously on a dull note. Not even a valedictory ritual-- let alone the grand gala that was witnessed at the state’s most expensive hotel on June 1^st--- was held in his honour. Similar was the case with Dr Bhan over a year back.

Uncharitable labels were attached to Bhan, not only by NC but also by PDP. Some of the NC leaders publicly accused the former IG CID of burying the infamous ‘Srinagar sex scandal’ under the carpet during Mufti’s rule. In a little over two years, Ms Mufti and her PDP trained their guns on Bhan. As DGP Khoda was on leave in USA, Bhan was officiating as head of the state Police when two young women were found dead in mysterious conditions in Shopian, in May 2009. Ms Mufti, alongwith 18 of her party’s MLAs, marched through Lalchowk and courted arrest with her forceful demand of dismissing the DGP and proceedings against the “killers and rapists” of the Shopian females.

Even when the NC-led coalition stonewalled constitutional and intellectual opinion in nominating five of the coalition’s defeated candidates as “representatives of intelligentsia and academia” in violation of Section 5o (3) of the J&K Constitution, PDP did not raise the question of propriety and morality. Two of the State Accountability Commission convicts were proudly retained in Mufti’s party. One of them, formerly a senior official, was even blessed with a seat in Legislative Council.

Governor alone can not be held responsible for the ‘shortened distance’ between Chashma Shahi and Nawa-e-Subah. He can not be expected to proactively function like a leader of the Opposition. It was none other than Mr Vohra who returned the file to the Civil Secretariat in 2009 when the ruling coalition submitted recommendations for appointing two of the retired judges of J&K High Court as Members of the State Accountability Commission. It was duly pointed out to Chief Minister that the Leader of the Opposition, who happened to be a member of the selection committee, could not be bulldozed in the matter of such recommendations.

Clearly, the ball of agitating the issues of propriety and morality in the SVC appointments is lying in the court of the principal Opposition party. It has got to push the merit of its argument without restricting itself to individual bias and hatred or wild allegations. Now that it has questioned why Supreme Court’s directions, passed in PJ Thomas case, were being “brazenly ignored” in J&K, it has to convince Raj Bhawan how appointment of CVC was far wider an issue than the bureaucratic exercise of appointing an executive engineer. PDP’s flexibility or silence at this stage could be potentially harmful to its image and interest.

On the other hand, Government too has built considerable prestige on its recommendations. As desired by law, it has to convince Governor on the ‘deficiency of merit’ in the opposition member’s dissent. Crucially at a time when voices are rising for a “locally elected” Governor and the demand has been upheld by the Centre’s interlocutors in their report, Mr Vohra has got to assess all pros and cons of accepting and rejecting the Government’s recommendations as well as the opposition’s dissent thereto. One thing is clear that the man at Raj Bhawan can not be seen to be taking cues from the political and bureaucratic corridors in New Delhi or Srinagar. It is none other than Mr Vohra who can define whether his Government had a real commitment to fight corruption or the institutions were simply being created for post-retirement rehabilitation of his regime’s blue-eyed officials.

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Iqbal Khanday fails to become Director on Board for 6 months

Govt goes unrepresented in J&K Bank due to Finance Secretary’s continued absence

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jun 5: Government of Jammu & Kashmir has gone unrepresented in around half-a-dozen important agenda meetings of the Board of Directors (BOD) of Jammu and Kashmir Bank in the last over five months. Senior IAS officer, Mohammad Iqbal Khanday, was appointed as Principal Secretary Finance by Omar Abdullah’s Cabinet on December 16^th, 2011, but he has not been appointed or declared as Director on Board in J&K Bank since last year even as the bank’s most important annual event, Annual General Meeting (AGM), is being planned here within a month.

By convention, as well as by the bank’s Article of Association, state government’s administrative Secretary of Finance Department becomes Government’s nominee and Director on Board. However, the procedure involves filling up of a small form and customary recommendation of the bank’s Nomination Committee that sets the agenda of Finance Secretary’s appointment as Director for meeting of the Board of Directors. State Government has 53.17% share in the government-controlled company.

Even as IAS officer of 1978 batch, Mr Khanday, was appointed as Principal Secretary Finance on December 16^th last year, J&K Bank’s official website continues to show his predecessor, Sudhanshu Pandey, as a Director on Board. With Khanday’s appointment as Principal Secretary Finance, Mr Pandey had been transferred and appointed Commissioner-Secretary of Power Development Department on the same day. Neither Pandey nor Khanday has attended any of the bank’s BOD meetings in the last over five months. Sources in bureaucracy insisted that the bank had not invited anybody from the state government (Finance Department) since the day of Mr Khanday’s appointment in December 2011.

Government’s representative Director was also conspicuously absent at today’s BOD meeting at the bank’s Corporate Headquarters. With this, Government went unrepresented also in Audit Committee meeting, Shareholders/Investors Grievance Committee meeting, Integrated Risk Management Committee meeting on June 4^th as well as in Management Committee meeting, Monitoring of Large Value Frauds Committee meeting, IT Strategy Committee meeting, Estates Committee meeting and Legal Committee meeting on June 5^th.

Chairman and head of the BOD, Mushtaq Ahmad, nominated Director on Board and RBI’s representative, Hari Narayan Iyer, besides other Directors on Board namely Mohammad Ibrahim Shahdad, Vikrant Kuthiala, Prof Nisar Ali, Abdul Majid Matoo, Rakesh Kumar Gupta and Nihal Garware participated in different groups in the said meetings. Sources disclosed to Early Times that like in the last three meetings, today’s BOD meeting had crucial agenda that necessitated presence of the Government’s director and Secretary Finance.

Bank’s Company Secretary, Abdul Majid Bhat, was not reachable foe his comments on telephone. However, officials not authorized to speak on record argued that the fault lay somewhere in Finance Department of the state government. According to them, Mr Khanday, like all other nominee directors including Chairman, was supposed to fill up a small declaration form prior to his recommendation by the bank’s Nomination Committee. On the other hand, well placed sources in Finance Department insisted that “some people in the bank” had been deliberately delaying the process. “Their callousness could be gauged by the fact that the bank’s website does mention Mr Pandey as a Director, though he has ceased to be one in the middle of December last year”, said a senior official. Minister of Finance, Abdul Rahim Rather, as well as Mr Khanday had their cellphones switched off for several hours of the day.

Officials at Corporate Headquarters of the bank refused to admit that the state government had gone unrepresented in all the BOD meetings in the last nearly six months. “Out of eight Directors, we have one representative from RBI. All others, including Chairman, as nominees of the state government”, said a senior official. He claimed that the process of formally appointing Mr Khanday as a Director on Bank was currently underway.

With the two seniormost Directors, namely Mohammad Ibrahim Shahdad and Vikram Kuthiala, scheduled to retire later this month, appointment of two Directors is likely to be a key agenda item of the forthcoming AGM. Even as both, Shahdad and Kuthiala, have completed eight years each in the BOD, both of them are eligible for fresh appointment if re-nominated by the state government. If appointed, each of them could continue in BOD for the next two years. Draw of lots is not happening in the process of elimination this year as the total number of seniormost Directors is not more than two. Normally, a high power body, comprising Chief Minister and Finance Minister, picks up the nominees from a list prepared by Finance Department which finally gets sanction of the shareholders at the AGM.

With existence of Chairman and seven Directors, including the RBI representative, four slots are presently vacant in the bank’s highest decision making body. The vacancies include that of the state government’s Finance Secretary.

Previously, two Executive Directors, namely A K Mehta and Abdul Majid Mir, were also part of the bank’s BOD. While as Mehta retired on May 31, 2011, Mir reached superannuation on June 30, 2011.  However, their replacement too has not come in the last over one year. In the topmost executive level, bank has currently three Executive Presidents, namely Tafazal Hussain (36 years of service), Sahibzada Ghulam Mohiuddin (37 years of service) and Parvez Ahmad Nengroo (14 years of service). None of them has been elevated to the rank of Executive Director.

Out of 16 Presidents, three (Madan Lal Gupta, Abdul Rashid and Mohammad Afzal Khan) have retired recently and these slots are also lying vacant.

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PDP leader roped in to resolve CVC appointment crisis

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jun 2: A middle rung leader of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is being roped in to resolve crisis between the ruling coalition and the principal opposition party over appointment of the outgoing Director General of Police, Kuldeep Khoda, as the first presiding officer of Jammu & Kashmir State Vigilance Commission. The intermediary, having low profile in politics but high profile in business, is trying hard to deflate the balloon of criticism against Mr Khoda but has not achieved any success in the last three days.

Well placed political sources said that two middle rung leaders of the PDP had been, of late, roped in with the crucial task of conflict resolution over Mr Khoda’s appointment as Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC). One of the intermediaries, according to sources, was holding an important position in the party but was more prominent on account of his flourishing business in horticulture sector. Another was described as a young legislator from Baramulla district. Even as the duo, according to sources, attempted their crisis management task on behalf of the outgoing DGP, it was not immediately clear whether it was the contender’s personal initiative or the State government’s covert operation to protect its prestige on Mr Khoda’s appointment. The high profile businessman-politician was reportedly trying to mobilize support in Mr Khoda’s favour while roping in some legislators and top brass of his party.

Sources said that the two middle-aged politicians, both from Baramulla district, drove all the way to the PDP patriarch Mufti Mohammad Syeed’s residence and pleaded that blocking Mr Khoda’s appointment would not be an act of prudence for the opposition. Inspite of a slew of reservations, Mufti is understood to have, in turn, spoken to his daughter and the party President, Mehbooba Mufti. However, Ms Mufti argued that preserving the credibility of the institutions like SCV, State Accountability Commission (SAC) and State Information Commission (SIC) was more important for the principal opposition party than obliging individuals and favourites of the government. According to sources, she asserted that even a minute flexibility in the PDP’s stated position on this subject could enormously harm interests of the party.

Mufti Sayeed, according to sources, did not press what the two middle rung leaders of the party had desired directly and indirectly.

Sources attributed ‘delay’ in General Administration Department’s letter to Raj Bhawan to the latest conflict resolution process, suggesting that the stakeholder was “desperately trying” to clear the decks for the CVC’s appointment. While as Secretary GAD, Mushtaq Ahmad Sheikh, did not respond to phone calls, Principal Secretary to Governor, Naveen Choudhary, maintained that no such communication had passed through his desk till this evening. As already reported in media, albeit without denial or confirmation from the Government, minutes of the May 28^th meeting of the high power search committee had been recorded and got signed by GAD from all the three Government members---Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, Deputy Chief Minister, Tara Chand, and Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Mohammad Sagar---as well as the only member from opposition, Mehbooba Mufti.

After her strong objection to Mr Khoda’s name and nominating retired IAS officer, Samuel Varghese, and retired IPS officer, Dr Ashok Bhan, as the suitable candidates, Ms Mufti has reportedly recorded her dissent with detail in the draft of the minutes. This document is supposed to be forwarded to Governor, with detailed rejoinder of the Government members, for issuing warrant of appointment under law. On recommendations of the high power search committee, the competent authority can appoint CVC as well as the Vigilance Commissioners, not more than two. Three of the Government members are reported to have unanimously recommended Mr Khoda as the CVC besides two retired officers (former Financial Commissioner RK Jerath and former Commissioner Secretary GAD, Mohammad Sayeed Khan) as Vigilance Commissioners.

Sources in Department of Law said that Governor had the prerogative of accepting or rejecting Ms Mufti’s note of dissent and the three Government members’ recommendations in favour of Messers Khoda, Jerath and Khan. However, they said, Governor was likely to seek opinion from Advocate General and eminent legal and constitutional experts including those based outside J&K. These sources said that Raj Bhawan had already obtained authentic text of all related laws in the state as well as at the national level and a particular study was underway of the Supreme Court of India judgment, dated March 3^rd, 2011, in the famous PJ Thomas petition. 

According to these sources, there was no major hitch after clean chit to Mr Khoda in the so-called Bhaderwah triple murder case by J&K High Court but moral aspects of Mr Khoda’s appointment were now in sharp focus.

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Khoda’s appointment: Legally right, morally wrong

Outgoing DGP should not stand at the centre of Govt-Opposition clash over SVC appointments

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, May 31: Even after his getting clean chit from J&K High Court in the so-called Bhaderwah triple murder, appointment of the outgoing Director General of Police (DGP), Kuldeep Khoda, as the first head of J&K State Vigilance Commission (SVC), is running the risk of being perceived as a blue-eyed boy’s post-retirement rehabilitation rather than Omar Abdullah Government’s commitment to curb corruption.

Omar Abdullah’s government, it appears, is bent upon bulldozing the public opinion and fulfilling its prestige in Mr Khoda’s appointment. It could comfortably sail through the process if Governor, N N Vohra, restricted his judgment merely to the prism of technicality and legality. Government has certain extra advantages too: Khoda’s appointment has been resisted by the leader of a party that has audaciously rehabilitated tainted public servants by inducting them into senior positions, including the membership of Legislative Council; PDP has not discharged its duty as the principal Opposition party when the government moved amendment in the State Vigilance Commission Act of 2010 in the year 2011.

None of PDP’s members in the legislature asked the government as to why the amendment was not in accordance with the Supreme Court of India directions in the PJ Thomas case, as announced on March 3, 2011. Chief Justice S H Kapadia and other members of his bench had categorically asked the state governments to widen their zone of consideration to civil society in appointment of heads and members of Vigilance bodies. In para 55 (ii), Supreme Court had said: “In future the zone of consideration should be in terms of Section 3 (3) of the 2003 Act. It shall not be restricted to civil servants”.

Significantly, in total ignorance of Justice Kapadia’s direction, Chief Minister’s draft of the amendment simply created room for induction of Police officers into SVC. Previously, only civil service officers were qualified to become members and heads of SVC. Appointment of IPS officers, in facts, reduces the difference between the SVC and State Vigilance Organisation. Police enjoyed monopoly in SVO and it was because of this that the organisation did not proceed against Police officers.

Government’s last, but not the least, advantage in this particular matter is that PDP has invoked only wide allegation like “Mr Khoda’s responsibility in 12o killings” or “clean chit to Abdullah family in Haji Yousuf murder case and Cricket Association Scam”. Bhaderwah triple murder was the only specific accusation. Obviously, without much difficulty, Government can convince Raj Bhawan that, after J&K High Court’s clean chit to Mr Khoda, there is no substance in the dissent recorded by the Leader of the Opposition. And the Governor, who showed no hesitation in accepting five of the ruling coalition’s defeated candidates as “representatives of intelligentsia” and nominating them as members of the House of Elders in 2009, is widely expected to go strictly by the desire of National Conference and Congress.

It is already being projected by NC leaders that in PJ Thomas case, Supreme Court has not given “power of veto” to any member or members of the high power selection committee.

But, many other factors can not be brushed under the carpet by custodian of the state Constitution. The timing and manner in which the Bhaderwah killings case has been dismissed a day after the selection committee meeting, has already generated a controversy and doubts over credibility of the state’s institutions. Same could have come easily weeks before or after Mr Khoda’s date of retirement and date of the selection committee meeting.

As the law says, the dissenting member shall have to record as to what precisely made her differ with the opinion of other members of the committee. Government members, in turn, shall have to explain as to what made their favourite (Mr Khoda) in their opinion superior to other nominees of the panel like Samuel Varghese and Ashok Bhan, whose integrity has been above board throughout their span of service in civil administration and Police, respectively.

Other questions of moral significance may also have to be answered. Significantly again, then Commissioner-Secretary of General Administration Department (GAD) recommended his own name at serial number one when Government asked him to collect nominations from all the administrative departments and prepare a list of the candidates.

As long back as on July 16^th, 2011, Early Times had made the first ever disclosure of Mr Khoda being the coalition government’s choice for the post of CVC. Government did not react but its functionaries maintained in public and private conversations that this newspaper had ‘no credibility’. Even as the Commission was created by way of an SRO on 15-02-2011, Government conveniently slept over the process of appointments in the SVC of CVC for over a year. Government’s choice last week has made it unmistakably clear that the amendment made in the law was for the sake of making one particular Police officer eligible for headship of SVC.

Public perception of Mr Khoda being a blue-eyed boy of the corridors of power in New Delhi and Srinagar is gaining ground fast. Cynics have gone to the extent of attributing motives even to his initiative of “balancing the representation of Niabats” in J&K Police (spot recruitments of the last few months). Though a number of such camps have been held in segments of PDP’s MLAs, many in the Opposition are dismissing the process as “bribe” to certain men of consequence in the corridors of power.

It has to be born in mind that current controversy on Mr Khoda’s nomination is neither a Service Writ Petition between two Executive Engineers nor a matter of the appointment of a Managing Director for a Corporation. Justice, they say, should not only be done but also seem to be done. What ultimately matters in selection of judges of High Courts and Supreme Court, Chairpersons and members of Vigilance and Accountability commissions or even the Governors is the common peoples’ faith and trust in their person and the institutions. More than the opposition, it is the coalition government that has spoiled Mr Khoda’s candidature by waiting for the day of his retirement and holding the entire existence of the Commission hostage only to fulfill ego.

Having put in 38 years of IPS in his home state, an incumbent like Mr Khoda is not expected to allow himself to be placed at the centre of the clash between the NC-Congress coalition and the PDP. Unfortunately, public perceptions have been more defining than the realities in Kashmir. Who else could know it better than Mr Khoda who experienced dozens of “rape-and-murder in Shopian” during his eventful term of five years as DGP in J&K?

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Mehbooba favours Bhan as CVC, says Khoda is facing murder charges

Govt ignores PDP’s dissent; recommends Khoda as SVC chief, Jeerath and Sayeed as Commissioners

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, May 28: In an obvious attempt to embarrass Omar Abdullah-led coalition government over the appointment of the retiring Director General of Police, Kuldeep Khoda, as the first head of the newly created State Vigilance Commission (SVC), PDP President Mehbooba Mufti today walked out of the Search Committee meeting, asking how a Police officer ‘involved in killings’ could be appointed as CVC and expected to curb corruption. Government has, nevertheless, decided to ignore Mehbooba’s dissent and is recommending Mr Khoda as Chief Vigilance Commissioner and two retired IAS officers, namely R K Jeerath and Mohammad Sayeed Khan, as Commissioners.

Early Times disclosure, made exactly a year ago, proved right this evening when representatives of the coalition government---Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand and Minister of Law, Ali Mohammad Sagar---recommended the outgoing DGP, Mr Khoda, as the first CVC. However, the fourth member of the statutory search committee, PDP chief and Leader of the single largest opposition party in Assembly, Mehbooba Mufti, expressed her strong reservations. Sources present in the meeting at Hari Niwas Palace told this newspaper that Mehbooba had come “fully prepared” only to block Mr Khoda’s appointment.

Sources said that immediately after the meeting began at 7.00 p.m, the government members asked Ms Mufti to reveal her choices. She desired to know who exactly figured in the panel reportedly prepared and shortlisted by the government. Mehbooba mentioned the names of the former DGP (Prison), Dr Ashok Bhan, and former Financial Commissioner Home, Samuel Varghese, and pleaded that they could be the most suitable for the post of the CVC. She asserted that both of them had retired with unblemished service record and had proved to be the public servants of high integrity, competence and reputation.

However, Omar and Sagar expressed their reservation with regard to both. They insisted that Khoda would be the best incumbent, given his track record of competence and integrity for near 38 years in the state Police. Thereupon, Mehbooba triggered her gun. She asserted that Mr Khoda was facing serious charges of killing in the infamous Bhaderwah triple murder case that, according to her, had been established by Crime Branch and even brought before judicial courts as well as National Human Rights Commission. She also held Mr Khoda responsible for 120 killings in the street violence of 2010 summer during his headship of Jammu and Kashmir Police. “How can such a person be appointed as head of State Vigilance Commission? How do you expect him to fight corruption?” Mehbooba asked Omar and Sagar. When both resisted, she bluntly leveled allegation that the retiring DGP was being “rewarded for giving clean chit to Abdullah family in Haji Yousuf murder case”.

An indignant Chief Minister asked her why PDP had supported Khoda’s appointment as DGP in July 2007 when Ghulam Nabi Azad was Chief Minister and PDP was a partner in the coalition government. Mehbooba, according to sources, pleaded that Mr Khoda’s involvement in Bhaderwah killings had become public only last year. She pointed out that 120 civilians in Kashmir were killed in Police firing in 2010, not in 2007. Within 20 minutes of the deliberations, Mehbooba walked out of the meeting in protest. Within minutes, Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister too drove back towards their residences.

Government hurriedly organised a news conference at Hari Niwas. Speaking to mediapersons, Sagar said that the Chief Minister made an effort to evolve consensus as was done earlier in the case of appointment to State Information Commission and State Accountability Commission. He further informed that a panel of six persons each for CVC and two Vigilance Commissioners was deliberated upon in the meeting. However, he said, there was no consensus on the name of CVC as the same was not agreed to by the leader of opposition.

Sagar said that the institutions such as State Vigilance Commission should be kept above politics but unfortunately some persons were politicizing the appointments to these institutions. He further stated that the recommendations would be submitted to the Governor for his approval and the Government would duly mention in its communication that “one particular party had dissent on one particular name”.

Even as Sagar did not identify the men being recommended for appointment to Governor, sources said that the committee, notwithstanding Ms Mufti’s strong note of dissent against Khoda, favoured the retiring DGP as CVC and Messers Ravi Kulbhushan Jeerath and Mohammad Sayeed Khan as the two Commissioners. Sources said that General Administration Department (GAD) was being asked to draft the letter and send it to Raj Bhawan later tonight.

PDP too quickly called media to Mufti’s residence. Speaking to media late this evening, Ms Mufti revealed that she had opposed Khoda’s appointment as CVC. According to her, she walked out of the meeting in protest when Chief Minister and Law Minister remained hell bent that none other than Khoda be recommended for the post of CVC. She claimed that Deputy Chief Minister remained silent and only Omar and Sagar threw their weight behind Khoda.

“I argued that it was a matter of law. I pointed out that in PJ Thomas case, Supreme Court of India had issued strict guidelines to all state governments that integrity watchdogs should be not essentially public servants but also eminent social activists. I told them that I had written a letter, wishing Chief Minister to assert and make necessary amendment in the law as per the Supreme Court guidelines. But, till date, I even did not get a reply”, Mehbooba said. She said that she further raised her objection, asking Omar and Sagar how a Police officer facing charges of murder in Bhaderwah case and responsible for 120 killings in Police firing could be appointed as CVC. “I told them that Mr Khoda was being rewarded for giving clean chit to Abdullah family in Haji Yousuf murder case”, she added. Mehbooba said that she could not become part of deliberations aimed at rewarding killers with statutory positions.

The PDP chief said that Bhaderwah killings had surfaced in 1997 but then Chief Minister of NC, Dr Farooq Abdullah, had “hushed up the case”. She said it was during Khoda’s headship of J&K Police that Police and Crime Brach investigation in “Cricket Association Scam” and other matters had been bungled. She said that there was no discussion in the meeting on the panels for two Vigilance Commissioners. “I made it clear to them that when there was no consensus on the name of the CVC, what was the fun of discussing VCs”, she said.

Asked what would be PDP’s future course of action in this particular matter, Mehbooba said: “I have done my job. Now this is for Governor to see how he could accord to assent to the controversial names and appoint men who are involved in murders”.

END

Sarkar ‘nervous’ as Geelani brings all Sarkari Maulvis under his umbrella

Hurriyat (G) chief views sectarian divide is a ‘world conspiracy against Islam’

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, May 25: National Conference, Congress or their governments in the state and the Centre had never publicly identified themselves with the young cleric Maulana Ghulam Rasool Hami’s Karvan-e-Islam (the caravan of Islam). This Bareilvi preacher from Ganderbal has shot into prominence with his sizeable Meelaad rallies and sermons, demonstrating reverence in Kashmir’s saints and shrines. On January 15^th in 2007, Hami’s lieutenant, Maulana Abdul Rashid Dawoodi, survived a grenade attack at Tahab village in Pulwama when five of his followers died and 60 sustained injuries.

Years later, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah inducted Hami as a member of the Muslim Wakaf body in Kashmir. Last year, the Bareilvi’s organized a major show of strength with apparent facilitation of the Government. Earlier this month, Hami silently quit Omar-led Wakf body but not for devoting more time to his green-turbaned movement of the revival of faith in Valley’s shrines. Contrary to common expectations, both, Hami as well as Dawoodi, attended a conclave of clerics at Geelani’s residence and under his stewardship. With their attendance and statements, both lent credence to Geelani’s radical ideology of separating J&K from India and making it part of the theocratic Pakistan which he euphemistically calls ‘Azadi Bara-e-Islam’ (freedom for the religion of Islam).

Hami, Dawoodi and the Grand Mufti of Kashmir, Mufti Bashiruddin, are not the only ones who have dramatically become Geelani’s fiendlies in the changing scenario. Geelani’s arch rival in the separatist camp, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has also been isolated to an extent. Of late, he has been religiously deputing his aide, Sayeed-ur-Rehman Shamas, as representative of Anjuman-e-Nusrat-ul-Islam to attend meetings of the new formation at Geelani’s house. Other participants, according to sources, include a fairly thick number of the known pro-establishment clerics. In his hard-hitting statements, Geelani had been denigrating them as Sarkari Maulvis (clergymen sold out to the Government). He is no more using the phrase.

For obvious reasons, Geelani’s success in bringing the entire clergy under his umbrella is widely being interpreted as the establishment’s setback---from Srinagar to Delhi. Significantly, most of the clerics, belonging to divergent schools of thought, have buried the hatchet and strengthened Geelani while, more significantly, burying the ‘pro-Delhi’ phrases of Kashmiriyat, Aetiqaad (faith in saints and shrines), pluralism and the Valley’s secular ethos.

This has not occurred overnight. As a particular school of thought, extolling puritanical attributes of Islam, began spreading its tentacles from two revered shrines of Batmaloo and Sarai Bala, two incidents of firing happened in the two neighbourhoods. Killing didn’t appear to be the motive. Pir Jalal-ud-din of Batmaloo was left wounded in the first shootout. PSO of a senior government official, emerging as proponent of the pro-saint pro-shrine form of the religion, was targeted in the second firing. Within the next few days, the official was truncated by the Omar Abdullah government with his transfer from a key department. Unconfirmed reports insist that he too attempted to win Geelani’s mercy when some radical outfits got him in the eye of a storm.

Knowledgeable sources, nevertheless, insist that Geelani used neither the “fear of gun” nor money to dent what he calls ‘the Government’s sinister plan of dividing the Kashmiri Muslims on sectarian divergence’. Even in NC and Congress, a many activists believe that Geelani was yielding minimum influence after failure of the 2010 street agitation and he was not currently in a position to make his writ run in the changing Srinagar. Analysts here assert that recent exposure of several Maulvis and Imams as being the beneficiaries of New Delhi’s funding to Madrasas was craftily interpreted by pro-radical media as an act of “treason to the freedom struggle”. Perceiving the threat of total elimination, they resorted to the prudence of submission before Geelani.

At his news conference today, Geelani claimed that Government had got “unnerved” over his success of bringing all clerics under one fold. He asserted that most of them had attended his initial conclave on May 5^th. “It had been decided to unitedly fail and fight all of the Government’s sinister plots to divide the Muslims on sectarian grounds. Next meeting had been scheduled on May 24^th. Though all of the invitees had left their places and were on way to Hyderpora, Police put up barriers and sent them threats by telephone to stop them from attending the meeting”, Geelani alleged. He asserted that dividing Muslims all over the world was a “world conspiracy” in which USA, Israel and India were the key characters.

According to Geelani, red herrings were being used to make the Kashmiris forget their sacrifices for the “freedom struggle”. Government agencies, he alleged, had imposed peace in Kashmir with the barrel of the gun. He claimed that neither development nor employment to the youth could make the Kashmiris forget and abandon their “struggle for freedom”.

Geelani significantly ignored reference to contents of the Kashmir interlocutors’ report, made public in New Delhi yesterday. However, when a journalist pressed for reaction, Geelani asserted that the report had only vindicated Hurriyat Geelani’s stand. Geelani and his loyalists had boycotted the interlocutors--- Dileep Padgoankar, Radha Kumar and M A Ansari---and dismissed the UPA Government’s initiative as “merely India’s post-2010 move to mislead the Kashmiris and the entire world over the unreal peace in Kashmir”.

In a significant development, Geelani revealed that he had post-poned the May 29^th shutdown to May 30^th in response to requests from Kashmiri Pandits, who wished that the annual Khirbhawani festival on May 29^th be not disturbed.

END

Police department’s Haji Yousuf, PHC officials caught red-handed

Protected person had converted EP quarter into gambling centre; 6 VIPs arrested, 3 vehicles seized

Early Times Report

SRINAGAR, May 25: In an unusual raid on a Government quarter in Batmaloo, Police have caught six highly influential persons red-handed while gambling. Stake money worth over Rs 74,000, packs of playing cards and three vehicles have been seized from them.

Authoritative sources revealed to Early Times that on Thursday, a Police party from Police Station Batmaloo conducted a raid on an Evacuee’s Property, allotted by Custodian Kashmir to an influential Shahtoosh trader, Muzaffar Ahmad Handoo, near General Bus Stand in Batmaloo. Handoo, alongwith his armed guard, allotted to him by Police Department, was found gambling with four others at the premises.

All the six alleged gamblers were arrested and their stake money, besides a Scorpio vehicle, a Santro and an i20 A-Star, were seized from them. After recording statements and sustained questioning of the detainees, case FIR No: 51 of 2012 under sections 3, 4 and 5 of Public Gambling Act, dated 24-05-2012, was registered against them.

The investigation was completed within 24 hours and the accused were produced, alongwith challan, in the court of law today. Sources said that Chief Judicial Magistrate Srinagar granted bail to the accused and transferred the case for trial to court of Sub Registrar Srinagar today. CJM directed that challan of the case be produced before the court of Sub Registrar Srinagar on May 26^th.

Sources said that the raid was conducted after complaints poured in repeatedly that the officially allotted EP house was being misused by the allottee for gambling. Warrants were obtained for search and arrests and thereafter Police carried out the operation.


Those arrested in the raid included Muzaffar Handoo of Soura (presently Padshahi Bagh), a Pashmina and Shahtoos trader known for his two-decade-long intimate relations with top and middle rung officers of J&K Police, including a number of retired and serving DGPs, additional DGPs, IGPs, DIGs, SSPs and SPs. Sources revealed that Handoo had been enlisted as a protected person and allotted a PSO in 1996 from Police Department. His SPO, namely Constable Mushtaq Ahmad Dar of Sangham Iddgah, was also arrested on spot. With free access to offices of almost all senior Police officers, including sensitive security installations like Srinagar Airport, Handoo was known for managing transfers and appointments besides allotment of contracts and supply orders in J&K Police and Police Housing Corporation. With his arrest, two of his cellphones and Vehicle:  JK 01 M 7665 [Silver i20 Astar] have been seized.


Sources identified the other detainee as Abdul Qayoom Wani S/o Ghulam Mohammad Wani R/o Chhanapora, who was reportedly owner of a transport company at Fruit Mandi Srinagar. One cellphone and a Santro, bearing No: JK 01-J 8937, has been seized from him.
Another detainee has been identified as Abdul Majeed Lone S/o Ghulam Mohiuddin Lone of Model Town Sopore, presently living at Govt Quarter J-31 Jawahar Nagar, Srinagar. He has identified himself as Procurement Officer of J&K Police Housing Corporation. One cellphone and a Scorpio, bearing registration number JK 01-P 3572, have been seized from him. Sources said he revealed the names of some other officials, including an Executive Engineer, who had also been gambling even during hours of duty.


A contractor working with the corporation, Mohammad Yousuf Khan S/o Ghulam Ahmad Khan of Moninabad Batmaloo has also been arrested on the spot. His cellphone has also been seized.


Yet another detainee has identified himself as M K Bhat S/o Raghunath Bhat R/o Roop Nagar Jammu, presently Bishembar Nagar Srinagar. He disclosed during questioning that he was an official working in office of SE PWD Baramulla. However, Chief Engineer R&B Kashmir, Mushtaq Ahmad, claimed that no official of his department or SE’s office Baramulla had been arrested.


Sources said that stake money worth Rs 70,400 was also seized from the alleged gamblers on spot.


END