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| Jammu leaders silent over vital issues | | Fearing withdrawal of PSOs.......? | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Oct 9: Personal Security Officers (PSOs) have become powerful weapon in the hands of state government and given it unbridled powers to bargain anything under the open sky with the leaders of different classes in Jammu region.
For these leaders who are seen protesting, addressing press conferences and burning effigies as a mater of routine, PSOs are a status symbol. They describe their worth and importance in the government circles. The PSOs give these local leaders, most of whom have spent a good part of their life protesting in their localities, trouble-free access to corridors of power.
The PSOs ensure that their movement is not restricted even during worst of the security situation. The Personal Security Officers make these lesser known and media created leaders high-profile and ensure that they get contracts, licenses, water connections, telephone connections, unlimited power usage and other similar benefits from different government departments without making any major effort.
They are given priority wherever they go. Their issues get redressed and they are not made to stand in long queues or wait for appointment with high and mighty in the administration. Importance of PSOs for these Mohalla and so-called leaders of Jammu region can be gauged from the fact that none utters even a single word against corruption in government institutions and prefers to issue clarifications, if a newspaper publishes any report against the government especially the Chief Minister quoting them.
A Mohalla leader who was assigned two PSOs by the state government overnight would hire two autorikhshaws while going out of his home. Of the two autorikhshaws, one was meant for the Mohalla leader and other for his PSOs. Wherever the leader would go, they would follow him the second autorikhshaw. This continued for more than a year before the poor fellow purchased a second hand Maruti car.
Ironically, by then the leader had issued three to four against the state government especially Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Both the PSOs were withdrawn and the man can be seen driving his second hand car in and out of the high profile offices of several police officers, pledging not to repeat the mistakes (read statements against Chief Minister) he made after being assigned the PSOs.
What to talk of these Mohalla leaders, even those committed to a particular ideology prefer modifying their statements against state government merely out of the fear of withdrawal of PSOs assigned to them. BJPs state president Shamsher Singh Manhas recently issued a clarification stating that he did talk about CBI or Judicial inquiry into the killing of NC worker Syed Mohammed Yousuf Shah but uttered not even a single word against Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
He clarified that his party does not want Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to step-down but only wants a CBI inquiry into the alleged custodial killing. The correction in the statement reminds one of the furor over the withdrawal of PSOs assigned Manhas. The entire BJP was up in arms against the state government and once, the PSOs returned to the job, Manhas had seemingly learnt a lesson of not taking CM to task for any reason.
It is this fear of losing PSOs which has prevented BJP and the other local leaders from making NC worker's alleged custodial killing a major issue. They are fearful of the withdrawal of PSOs assigned to them. They know that they are neither running any newspaper nor have business interests where the government could attack but only PSOs which if withdrawn by the state government would ruin their public image and also to some extent invite wrath of officers in their favourite departments i.e. CAPD, Transport, Power, PHE and PWD. |
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