At a time when the PDP and the BJP seem to be in the final phase of stitching a coalition to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir, Governor N.N. Vohra has triggered a controversy by carrying out a major reshuffle in the State’s administration and police on Tuesday.
While the PDP called the action “lacking in propriety,” the BJP called it “undesirable and not moral.”
Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the reshuffle indicated that the Governor was staying on.
“If the Governor himself said he was hopeful that an elected and popular government in the State was days away, such a major reshuffle makes no sense,” PDP’s chief spokesperson Naeem Akhter told The Hindu .
Mr. Akhter said while the Governor, acting as the head of the State, is well within his rights to make the change, he “probably should not have made them.”
“The Governor has a very important and respected constitutional position, but this action lacks propriety,” he said. “It took us by complete surprise and we really do not understand the need of these changes at this time.”
The reshuffle affects the posting of 23 IAS officers and more that 40 officers from Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) in the civil administration. Among the 84 senior police officers transferred are two Inspector Generals, seven Deputy Inspector Generals, and 75 Senior Superintendents and Superintendents of Police.
“It [the reshuffle] was not a desirable decision and we can’t understand why it was so urgent to make these changes. It lacks moral ground and it took us by surprise,” BJP legislator Nirmal Singh told The Hindu .
Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted that he found the reshuffle confusing.
Several senior bureaucrats and police officers also criticised the reshuffle saying a number of changes were made under pressure from a section of the bureaucracy close to Raj Bhavan, and the rest of the reshuffle was only to divert attention from those changes.
“If an elected government is on its way, as both the Governor and the elected political parties have been claiming, the decision of such a big reshuffle is intriguing and some of the changes that have been made disrupt the balance between Jammu and Kashmir regions,” a senior officer told The Hindu .
