By: Sameer Bhasin
The old Bollywood movies had a very popular dialogue, particularly during the sequences where hero wanted to know if heroin too loved him – ‘Larkiyo ki naa mei bhi haan hoti hai’. This meant even if a girl says no to boy’s advancement towards her, there is a hidden ‘yes’ in the girl’s heart.
No, please do not jump to any conclusion and see some sexist remarks in the above statement. The reference here is to the ‘Durbar Move’, the LG administration had on Monday announced.
The administration’s first no to the ‘durbar move’ to Srinagar owing to the pandemic and then on Monday announcing the shift of the seat of J&K’s capital are not only contradictory but has an element of confusion too as the official press release reads “There will be no closure of the Jammu Secretariat, which shall reopen on 1st July, 2020 (Wednesday)”. How can something which has not been closed and is already open, be reopened?
The administration order on this context reads, “The Civil Secretariat shall continue to remain functional both at Jammu and Srinagar and the move employees shall work on "as is where is" basis i.e. Kashmir based staff shall work from Srinagar Secretariat and Jammu based staff shall work from Jammu Secretariat. The move offices outside the Civil Secretariat shall also continue to remain functional both at Jammu as well as Srinagar.”
“All the Departments shall function from both the locations for which the Administrative Secretaries shall make necessary arrangements especially at the Senior Staff Level to ensure the functionality in their respective departments, both at Srinagar and Jammu. Similar arrangements shall be put in place by the Heads of the Departments observing Darbar Move.”
Now note the contradiction here as the order also mentions, “In continuation to previous orders and in view of review of extent and spread of COVID-19 in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the Darbar Move offices for the Summer Session-2020 shall formally open at Srinagar on 6th July, 2020 (Monday) at 9:30 a.m.”
The confusion, which appears to have been crept in, is most likely to be the deliberate attempt to cover up that the administration has bent under some pressure and thus resorting to the shift of the capital in clandestine manner.
A section of media has already reported that there has been reasonable pressure from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to affect the shifting of seat of the government to Srinagar as per the tradition. While the reason given in the public domain for the same is that by making the top brass of administration and the Lt Governor move to Srinagar would have a positive effect on the initiation of the proposed political process in Kashmir for which government has released most of the political leaders from the detention; it can’t be ruled out that the Centre has lost control over the politicos in the Valley and hence given up and allowed the shift of the durbar despite the alarming Covid situation in the Valley, where most of the districts have been declared red zones.
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