Recruitments in JK: Marginalisation of majority in the name of acceleration

With Jammu & Kashmir Government constituting a committee to accelerate the process of recruitments in absence of a popular government, the representation of the majority muslim community of Jammu & Kashmir has been reduced to just one member in a committee of five members. Above placing a super recruitment committee over the services selection board an impartial recruiting agency is shocking and insulting. In fact attempt to belittle and marginalise the majority community in particular and Kashmir valley in general does not head to any dead end since the abrogation of article 370 and bifurcation of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state into two union territories. Ironically the Jammu & Kashmir Bank on the recommendation of the Jammu & Kashmir Government recently scrapped the selection process conducted for over 1200 posts by the country’s premier banking recruiting agency during the reign of Satya Pal Malik led governor’s administration and decided to allow the same top banking recruiting agency to carry out a new selection process. The intentions of scrapping the old selection process and initiating a new exercise for selections under the aegis of the same banking recruiting agency are obviously clear. Intentions of polarization in recruitments are going deep and wide as the government has needlessly constituted a new committee of top bureaucrats for accelerating the process of recruitments and the composition of the committee itself shows that only one muslim bureaucrat from Kashmir has been included in the committee and rest of four are all non-muslims with only one belonging to Jammu region. Ironically not a senior officer from Jammu like Dr Pawan Kotwal has been inducted into the committee but a far far junior officer Achal Sethi occupying the position of Deputy Secretary presently holding the charge of Law Secretary is one of the members of the committee.
While the government has placed a super recruitment committee over the top recruiting body of the government- SSB, the top leaders including the likes of Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdulla and followers of Mehbobba Mufti shed crocodile tears on abrogation of article 370 and downgrading of a state to union territory but don’t muster the courage to speak out on the decisions taken in haste to encroach upon the rights of the Kashmiri people in government jobs and policy making institutions. They have reduced their politics just to condolence statements and evacuations of the stranded people. The silence of mainstream leaders does not go unnoticed but resentment against their tardy behavior is rising with every passing day across Kashmir.
As per records Sethi has not been part of any recruitment exercise throughout his service career so for. No local bureaucrat but a non local Principal Secretary rank officer has been named as the head of the committee as otherwise government could have choosen either Dr Pawan Kotwal from Jammu or Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon from Kashmir as head of the committee. As far as terms of the references of the committee are concerned, the government owes explanations on many counts. Giving the power of intervention in the working of services selection board (SSB) to a government controlled committee is by all standards of understandabilities an intention to subvert transparency in the name of transparency. Ironically the terms of references of the committee show that the procedure for recruitment has to be finalised by the government controlled committee but not the services selection board (SSB).Shockingly the terms of reference of the above quoted committee also includes the priority for recruitment to Class IV posts. While the recruitment for higher posts should have been the priority, but priority is recruitment for class IV posts and never forget that class IV recruitments are driven more by the considerations of political motivations and very less by the considerations of merit and transparency. While the referring of the posts to J&K SSB and J&K Public Service Commission is the domain of the administrative secretaries, the government has now authorised it’s own controlled committee to send indents for recruitments to J&K SSB only by 22nd May. When the government controlled committee has to send indents about the recruitments to SSB, the power of referring posts to SSB vested with administrative secretaries stands almost scrapped. While the government has placed a super recruitment committee over the top recruiting body of the government- SSB, the top leaders including the likes of Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdulla and followers of Mehbobba Mufti shed crocodile tears on abrogation of article 370 and downgrading of a state to union territory but don’t muster the courage to speak out on the decisions taken in haste to encroach upon the rights of the Kashmiri people in government jobs and policy making institutions. They have reduced their politics just to condolence statements and evacuations of the stranded people. The silence of mainstream leaders does not go unnoticed but resentment against their tardy behavior is rising with every passing day across Kashmir.