The way Union Home Ministry has asked the Jammu & Kashmir government commanded and Controlled by Mehbooba Mufti the incumbent Chief Minister shows that the powers to release even a normal prisoner have been taken away by the home ministry from the state government. Otherwise also the snatching of the powers of the state government on release of prisoners were not even contested by former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed whe he immediately after taking over the reigns of power was forced to re-arrest Masrat Alam one of the top resistance leaders in Kashmir. Ironically now the union home ministry only at the intervention of the special representative on dialogue with stake holders in Jammu & Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma has reportedly asked Mehbooba Government to release first time stone pelters in Kashmir valley. Interestingly during public uprising the year 2008 and summer unrest in the year 2010 the district SPs used to release first time and two time stone pelters on their own even without the consent of the Range DIGs, IGPs , DGP and state government’s home department. The home ministry’s directive to state government on the advice of Dineshwar Sharma the special representative on dialogue in Jammu & Kashmir that Modi government now intends to give the credit on release of political prisoners to Dineshwar Sharma but not the incumbent Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti who herself is minister incharge home department in the state. More embarrassment for the Chief Minister is reaction of the mainstream opposition parties National Conference, Congress party, CPI(M), Peoples Deomocratic Front(PDF) and Democratic Party –Nationalist (DPN) who claim that they alone but not the people running the affairs of the government took up the issue of the release of stone pelters with Dineshwar Sharma during his maiden interaction with them in Srinagar early this month.
By all standards of administrative understandabilities eye watchers in Kashmir would now feel free to say that Dineshwar Sharma has proved more authoritative than the elected Chief Mnister of the state.
So now the directive of the home ministry to the state government on the advice of Dineshwar Sharma has not only triggered a debate over the authority of the Chief Minister but is also an insult to the popular mandate PDP-BJP government has got to run the affairs of the state in 2014 assembly elections. By all standards of administrative understandabilities eye watchers in Kashmir would now feel free to say that Dineshwar Sharma has proved more authoritative than the elected Chief Mnister of the state. So now the issue before both the ruling PDP-BJP coalition and the mainstream parties sitting in opposition including National Conference, Congress party, CPI(M), Peoples Deomocratic Front and Democratic Party (National) is not the restoration of people in the working of the government but the restoration of the routine law and order related powers of the state government.
