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| Wajahat’s kidding with Padma awards | | |
ABID SHAH
NEW DELHI, FEB 3: The justification given by Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah for the Padma honour given to a counter-insurgent from Jammu and Kashmir is self-contradictory as it was only Habibullah who earlier said that awards were meant for “school kids”.
In last November Magsasay award winner and RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal’s offer to select and award best information commissioners from Centre as well as States was called by Habibullah as “demeaning” since, according to him, information commissioners were “no school kids”.
He was backed in spurning Kejriwal’s award offer for information commissioners by his second-in-command MA Ansari who saw the possibility of influencing RTI commissioners through the move to offer awards to them.
Yet, in the wake of the controversy over Ghulam Mohammad Mir, a counter-insurgent from Jammu and Kashmir, being given Padma Shri, Wajahat said that he had recommended Mir for the award. The Centre’s Chief Information Commissioner justified this by saying that Mir had greatly helped security forces and authorities in facing the challenge posed by insurgency.
Thus, Wajahat tried to justify the award going to Mir as a result of his patriotism. But there may be many more people who may not be any less patriotic within the confines of Jammu and Kashmir as also beyond it where strife of other kinds, including insurgency is being faced by security forces, authorities and also citizens.
The point is how the Chief Information Commissioner could recommend something for someone else which he did not deem fit for himself or his colleagues. Though the Kejriwal’s award is no match for the Padma award which is highest civilian honour, Wajahat’s first instinct about awards was in variance with what he said in the wake of the controversy regarding Mir’s Padma Shri.
Moreover, Wajahat’s insistence that Mir had helped security forces might qualify him for reward by security forces instead of his being given a civilian honour.
Quite besides this is the fact that Wajahat Habibullah heads a statutory commission which is quasi-judicial in nature. It has also been insistent for judiciary’s accountability and declaring of judge’s assets. And, thus, his recommending a civilian for the highest State honour amounted to acting as a part of executive which in turn may bring a loss of independence that Wajahat Habibullah tried to guard so assiduously until November last year as to dub Kejriwal’s move to award RTI functionaries as “demeaning” to them.
Thus, Wajahat’s advocacy of Mir who according to media reports had a questionable past may be laced with Kashmir diplomacy. And he is called as one of the negotiators from Government’s side with various players in Kashmir politics, including separatists. Here also the move on CIC’s part is ridden with contradictions since he has been talking to the last also. Only a week or so ago he had called on Syed Ali Shah Geelani in New Delhi. Geelani is thought to be the most strident voice in the Kashmir Valley vis-à-vis separatism. And, thus, it is ironical that Wajahat has not been able to keep his moves separate as far as counter-insurgents and their political adversaries like separatist are concerned.
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