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| Information Department or CM's public relation department | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Oct 18: It is the duty of the information department to keep the people of the state fully informed about what happens in the state, what the state government does and what are the implications of what the government does. It is its duty to inform the general public as to what steps the government has been taking to provide to them an effective, accountable, responsive, transparent and corruption-free administration, as also as to what steps it has been taking to check corruption and make its tools function properly and to the satisfaction of the general public. But it just cannot convert the department into the Chief Minister's public relation department, as it has been consistently doing to create an impression that all is well with the Chief Minister and his government and that they general public looks towards them in order to get their grievances and day-to-day problem redressed.
People do meet the Chief Minister and other ministers. This is something normal. Meeting of the people with the Chief Minister and his ministerial colleagues is no news. But the today's Information Department consists of an altogether a different stuff. It considers its paramount duty to build the image of the Chief Minister, who otherwise has lost his grip over the state administration, groping in the dark, become thoroughly unpopular and created a sort of anarchy in the state in general and the Kashmir Valley in particular - the kind of anarchy the state never ever witnessed in the 63 years of the state's accession to India. Here is a Chief Minister who goes to the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences by air and reaches the prestigious institute only to face the wrath of the people, including women. Here is a Chief Minister who has not been able to make the government offices functions in the Kashmir Valley.
The Offices, educational institutions, commercial establishments and what not have become dysfunctional, particularly since June 20. Here is a Chief Minister whose writ runs between Gupkar Road and the Civil Secretariat whose working also stands crippled. Here is a Chief Minister who sends one of his political advisors to Syed Ali Shah Geelani with the message that he could continue his anti-India activities, but he should create an awkward situation for the state government or he should allow the Chief Minister retain his chair he got by an accident.
Here is a Chief Minister who is being censured by the Central Government in writing; who is being held directly responsible for the mess that we witness in Kashmir. It was the Cabinet Committee on Security that lambasted the Chief Minister on September 13 and held him responsible for "governance deficit" and "trust deficit." And, here is a Chief Minister who abdicates the state powers in favour of the Union Government and still asserts that he is in full command and that "he is not a puppet" of New Delhi. The 8-point package the Union Home Minister announced in New Delhi on September 25 left none in any doubt that the Chief Minister had yielded. Seven of the eight points in the package were the ones that fell within the purview of the state government and still boasts that he is in full command. Here is a Chief Minister who questions the accession of the state to India and demands greater autonomy, but abdicates even the state powers in favour of the Central Government.
And, here is a Chief Minister who has miserably failed on each and every front; who has failed to deliver; who has failed to restore law and order in the Valley; who has failed to discharge his constitutional obligations; who has failed to regenerate the socio-economic life of the people; who has only further embittered the already rather bitter inter-regional relations; who is being ridiculed across the country for his outrageous statement on accession and merger; and who doesn't enjoy the people's support whom the Information Department is trying to promote; trying to defend the indefensible; and trying to build the image of the Chief Minister. And here is a frightened Chief Minister who visits his own Gandarbal constituency but returns to Srinagar without addressing the few people who had gathered there.
Information Department issued two statements yesterday indicating that the people of Kashmir are coming in their hundreds, even in their thousands, to meet the Chief Minister and discuss with him their problems. The statements issued by the Information Department were captioned as "Hundreds be-line CM's Srinagar residence" and "Dooru Shahbad delegation feels proud on Omar's recent speech in Assembly." One of the persons from Dooru Shahbad Mohammad Akbar Ganai, who, according to the Information Department, met the Chief Minister told him that his "political speech delivered on the floor of the House has made proud and our political stand stands vindicated."
This is the Information Department. It is reporting that the Chief Minister's out-and-out controversial, unsettling and outrageous statement has made the people of Kashmir feel that their anti-India "stand stands vindicated." This is serious development. How could the Chief Minister question the accession of the state to India and how could he entertain people who are out-and-out anti-India? It appears that those who have started meeting the Chief Minister are either the followers of Geelani or the committed and pledged NC cadres. Perhaps, they are NC cadres who are being mobilized by the desperate, frustrated and marginalized NC leadership to create an impression that what the Chief Minister said on October 6 was correct and that he represents the whole of the Kashmir Valley.
New Delhi has to take cognizance of what is happening in Kashmir; what is being transpired between the Chief Minister and those against India; and what the Information Department is projecting. It cannot afford to allow the situation in Kashmir deteriorate further and the separatists gaining an upper hand. |
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