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| UP's Dugra gets audience, J&K's Sonali fails to attract national outrage | | Why this indifference? | |  Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 10: Nation is outraged over the treatment meted out to 2010 batch IAS officer from Uttar Pradesh cadre Durga Shakti Nagpal but has been maintaining criminal silence over the humiliation meted out to Jammu and Kashmir's fourth seniormost IAS officer Sonali Kumar.
A 1979 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Sonali Kumar, was transferred out of a key position by the state government because of sandwiches and Diet Coke. However, she failed to make news. On the contrary, what to talk to print media, national channels have been following the developments in Dugra Nagpal case closely.
Debates on the national television channels have heated up the atmosphere to such an extent that several IAS officers, retired as well as serving, have come out in support of Nagpal, seeking justice. They have demanded revoking of suspension of Nagpal. Even UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed concern over the treatment meted out to Durga Shakti Nagpal.
But as has been the case since last more than 40 years, not even a word was heard on the transfer of Sonali Kumar, the fourth seniormost IAS officer. IAS lobby of Jammu and Kashmir too refused to speak over state's apparent discomfort with Sonali Kumar. No one heard the powerful IAS association speaking for Sonali, who was transferred out of the resident commissioner's office within three months of her posting.
On July 31, the state cabinet headed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah shunted her to the Jammu and Kashmir Special Tribunal, considered a punishment posting. Sonali's crime? Serving sandwiches and Diet Coke to some Kashmiri Bureaucrats who wanted kebabs and biryani. They further talked about Sonali preferring to house IAS officers in five start accommodation over J&K's own KAS officer.
If this was not enough, there is also talk of Additional Resident Commissioner (ARC) Asif Hameed Khan's close proximity with Chief Minster Omar Abdullah. If the sources are to be believed, it is this proximity which led to Sonali being shifted out of RCs office within three months after she took over on April 20, 2013.
Sources say, however, that some officials complained they were served "Dal-Paani" and put up in the 'stuffy' Jammu and Kashmir House during their stay in Delhi on July 9 for a meeting of the Planning Commission. The trigger for the complaint seems to be the fact that some other officials in town for the same meeting, including the chief secretary, stayed at the Ashok Hotel. Sonali also earned the ire of some legislators who were on a tour to inspect properties of the state government on July 18.
Like Durga, Sonali followed her bureaucrat husband, Arun Kumar, who is presently Financial Commissioner (Revenue). Sonali was originally allotted Kerala cadre but got it changed to Jammu and Kashmir when she married. Kumar too has been facing brickbats since days of his posting as ex-Governor of Jammu and Kashmir S.K.Sinha's Principal Secretary. He was shifted out of Raj Bhawan and punished for having addressed a press conference to clarify Raj Bhawan's position over road to Amarnath cave shrine.
Both have been facing state's ire since then. Barring PHE Minister Sham Lal Sharma, none has stood to defend the Husband-Wife IAS couple. However, the two have been left to fend for themselves. Though Sonali has written to the Cabinet Secretary and Prime Minister, but silence of media has hurt her badly. None has spoken for her and left her to fend for herself. |
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