Jammu, October 07: While India is still grappling with the red tape of the British era trying to finish the colonial mindset of the politicians a new breed of modern day monarchs seem to have taken over them making the democratic institution as a hapless entity.
The mighty bureaucracy in Jammu and Kashmir seems to have taken the colonial mindset a step ahead crushing even the democratically elected representatives by ruling the roost in a bid to become the modern day monarchs of the state.
The Earth News had already highlighted how some of the high headed bureaucrats were over ruling the recommendations of the ministers and trying to act as super cabinet ministers by affecting changes without taking the concerned ministers into confidence thus making a mockery of the democracy.
Had it not been so the hue and cry by legislators cutting across party lines in the state assembly yesterday accusing the Commissioner Secretary Education Shaleen Kabra of highhandedness would not have occurred?
The buck did not stop here as the minister of education was not able to satisfy the agitating legislators today by giving some vague replies to their queries raised yesterday indicating that the allegations of the Ramnagar MLA RS Pathania were not unfounded as it was the minister who had made a mockery of the democracy by delegating all his powers to this particular bureaucrat emboldening him to ignore the junior minister as well as legislators while making transfers and other important decisions which requires the approval of democratically elected people.
It was this helplessness of the legislators and the dominating attitude of the Kashmiris political class to downgrade Jammu MLAs and ministers that Pathania was forced to approach Speaker of the Assembly seeking exclusive half an hour debate on the matter.
In a letter written to the Speaker and signed by many legislators including RS Pathania serious allegations have been leveled against Shaleen Kabra and the mess he has created in the education department indicating that legislators and ministers have been made a hapless entity by the bureaucrats in the state under the patronage of some anti-Jammu politicians.
In his letter Pathaina has also questioned the biased attitude of Kabra regarding Jammu region and depicted several instances of gross discrimination with Jammu.
He has also questioned the legality of a Kashmir based person being appointed on Jammu post and a an IAS officer being gifted a brand new Scorpio from Directorate of RMSA funds and adjustment of lecturers of one subject on the post of another subject to accommodate the blue eyed boys of Kabra.
These allegations are of serious nature and the Speaker has also given the government twenty four hours to come out with a reply as otherwise the concerned MLA might invoke privilege motion to seek debate on the subject.
It is imperative that Jammuites must take the issue seriously irrespective of the party lines and support the daredevil legislator in his pursuit to expose the anti-Jammu mentality of some politicians and the unnecessary red tape of the bureaucracy trying to muzzle the democratic institutions.
It is also time Jammu based legislators and ministers take charge and rule the state instead of letting bureaucrats rule the roost while democracy feels hapless.