Jammu and Kashmir: Differences between LG and CM
Asia News Agency
Highlighting the importance of the abrogation of Article 370, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said Thursday that it is after its revocation that a new era of development began in the Kashmir valley which was hampered due to terrorism. He said people were not aware that it was this statute that attempted to sow the seeds of separatism in the minds of the valley’s youth.
He further said that it was the Article 370 that spread an illusion about the connection between India and Kashmir was ‘temporary’ which had laid the foundation of separatism that later turned into terrorism.
NC government struggling to settle
Meanwhile, the first elected government of the five-year-old Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir seems to be struggling to settle even more than two months after coming to power. The Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the National Conference (NC) leader, have been at loggerheads in the last few weeks. In fact, according to Peerzada Ashiq (The Hindu journalist) “most elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders prefer to seek the LG’s intervention on governance issues rather than the Chief Minister’s Office….”
The absence of business rules “has made matters worse. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, gives power to the LG to make rules with the ‘aid and advice of the Council of Ministers’. However, the process is yet to be finalised and has impacted governance.” NC legislator and former High Court judge Hasnain Masoodi said, ‘The mandate has to be respected and the institution of consultations must be in place’.
Facing a formidable LG, who is resetting the rules of both governance and politics in J&K, Ashiq writes “Chief Minister Abdullah is repositioning himself. He has sought to tread the path of reconciliation between Srinagar and New Delhi." Abdullah has met the top leadership of the BJP, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and pleaded the case for full Statehood for J&K.
