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| Yet all hoped to be well with ending well | | A slip between cup and lip or hurry making curry | | Early Times Special Correspondent
Jammu | June 3
News Analysis
Call it a slip between the cup and the lip or hurry having made the curry, the master stroke struck by the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to win over and consolidate Scheduled Caste votes for the Congress in the forthcoming state assembly elections, by inducting the first Scheduled Caste high bureaucrat in the state, who by dint of his hard work and acumen had climbed the highest ladder in bureaucracy, to acquire the position of Chief Secretary of the state, Balwant Rai Kundal, into his cabinet has run into a rough weather. This may be a temporary phenomenon and a short time hitch in the prematurely retired Chief Secretary to join the state cabinet, yet the same has caused much embarrassment to the person himself and the Chief Minister, with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and his PDP supporters laughing in their sleeves, over this discomfort caused to Ghulam Nabi Azad and making the issue as a subject of public debate.
The entire episode has taken a dramatic turn and twist, with jubilation in the circles closed to Kundal as well as a large section of Congress party and its supporters in Jammu, who had welcomed the development, as harbinger of improving the prospects of Congress in the forthcoming elections, particularly in Jammu region where there is a vast chunk of Scheduled Caste voters as well as many admirers and supporters of B R Kundal, who during his long tenure of service has discharged his responsibilities with utmost dedication, with always a smile on his lips. His easy accessibility to the commoners and low profile, coupled with humility had earned him many friends and well wishers.
But "Satan never sleeps" his detractors and more so the detractors of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad were conspiring, behind the curtain, to upset the apple carts of the Chief Minister, by raising certain issues in order to settle old scores both with Azad, who had strung them in the past and B R Kundal who became the instrument to cause discomfort to the PDP, by indicting some party ministers in the Azad government and earlier in the Mufti government, for their role in the forest scam, in which they had not conducted themselves credibly.
Although the PDP, notably the former Chief Minister and the party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has raised objection to the abrupt development of making Kundal to resign prematurely from the post of Chief Secretary of the state and his induction into the state cabinet, on the ground of their having not been taking into confidence, which according to them was required in keeping with the coalition politics, yet the real purpose behind puncturing the well guarded secret plan of Ghulam Nabi Azad, brought to the notice of public, with all the surprise, is to pay tit for tat both to Azad and Kundal. However the step taken by Azad in extra ordinary haste too has contributed to the fiasco. The acceptance of the resignation of an IAS officer, particularly at the highest administrative post in a state, as Chief Secretary, requires some formalities to be fulfilled, which is little time consuming. The sanction from the Personnel Affairs Section of the Home Ministry is mandatory for the same. Hence this could be also a cause for the last minute hitch in Kundal being sworn in as cabinet Minster on Monday evening.
It is generally believed and hoped here that there is only a little delay, yet the matter will be clinched and Kundal join the state cabinet and "All will be well that ends well". |
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