‘Are they above the Assembly?’ Why Jammu and Kashmir politicians are up in arms against bureaucrats

On September 28, the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly passed a resolution seeking restoration of statehood – a promise made by the Narendra Modi government to the union territory which was abruptly downsized in August 2019.

But it was Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s revelation in the House that made more news than the resolution itself.

In his speech in the Assembly, Abdullah disclosed that two senior bureaucrats of his own government had written to the Speaker, urging him not to take up the resolution.

“Please ask them on whose behalf they are writing letters to you against the resolution,” Abdullah said, referring to the letters written by the chief secretary and the law secretary to Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather.

Abdullah, who is the law minister, said he was unaware that the law secretary had gone behind his back and asked the Speaker not to entertain the resolution as the matter was before the Supreme Court. “Can you imagine this kind of situation in a state where a CM moves a resolution and the law secretary will give an opinion against it?”

For Abdullah, this was the direct fallout of Jammu and Kashmir being summarily turned in 2019 from a state with special status in the Indian Union to a union...

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