Bureaucrats joining politics after quitting elite services are welcome to resume active service in Jammu and Kashmir even after the bifurcation of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state to a union territory and withdrawal of special status to it on August 5 last year. The return of Mehbooba Mufti’s cousin Sajad Mufti an IFS officer to active service and his transfer to newly created Ladhak union territory after holding a key party post in PDP during three year PDP-BJP coalition rule in erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state shows that bureaucrats commanding political clout are welcome to return to active service even after holding a key political post in any prominent political party. The BJP led NDA Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narenra Modi has atleast set a new precedence of extending a challengeable job concession to the close kin of the party chief of it’s former ally in Jammu & Kashmir. Extending a challengeable job concession to the close kin of the party chief of it’s former ally in Jammu & Kashmir on his return to active service is Modi government’s as good an unprecedented a decision as was the abrogation of special status of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir and birfurcation of the erstwhile state into two union territories. With Government yet to take a final call on the resignation of bureaucrat-turned-politician Shah Faesal, the return of Sajad Mufti from politics to bureaucracy with dignity has also opened the doors for the return of Shah Faesal from politics to bureaucracy in Jammu & Kashmir.
The return of Sajad Mufti to active service in the post August 5 political scenario shows that political animosities of Kashmir mainstream parties with BJP are heading to dead end very soon as the recent controversial remarks of the Utrakhand Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel over the release of Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah also indicate that BJP presently holding the reigns of power at the centre is working on a plan of reapproachment with Kashmir mainstream parties.
Return of bureaucrats to active service after playing key roles in politics is a new norm in the newly created new union territory called Jammu and Kashmir and by all standards of understandabilities such unprecedented decisions are million times more than the job concessions which the affiliates and sympathisers of top power wielding politicians used to get in the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state. The return of Sajad Mufti to active service in the post August 5 political scenario shows that political animosities of Kashmir mainstream parties with BJP are heading to dead end very soon as the recent controversial remarks of the Utrakhand Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel over the release of Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah also indicate that BJP presently holding the reigns of power at the centre is working on a plan of reapproachment with Kashmir mainstream parties. Nothing is impossible in politics when politicians have a good track record of disrespecting their own core political ideologies and interestingly BJP is not new to either PDP or NC as they been the partners of saffron party both in the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state and as wells as at the centre.
