CM, top NC leadership at odds over LG’s functioning

Omar downplays confrontation with Raj Bhavan, party leaders ramp up criticism

Jammu, January 9: While Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has sought to downplay any “confrontation” with Raj Bhavan as mere “differences of opinion,” the National Conference (NC) leadership has intensified its stance, with some leaders accusing the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of “running a parallel government to undermine the authority of the elected government".

On Thursday, NC president and Omar Abdullah’s father Dr Farooq Abdullah launched a frontal attack against the LG administration, alleging that “Jammu and Kashmir’s electricity has been diverted to Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh by LG Manoj Sinha”.

Dr Abdullah said this while reiterating his party’s demand for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood and said without it, several challenges cannot be addressed.

“Look at the state of electricity here. We do not have electricity but our electricity has been given to Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh by the honourable Lieutenant Governor. Where will we go? Where will we get electricity from? Nobody thought about this. Nobody considered this,” Dr Abdullah said while addressing the workers’ convention in Kathua.

He said, “We are the owners of power (electricity)… one day even their (LG and BJP’s) (political) power will be gone — just wait and see. The Almighty will bring justice one day, but it takes time.”

Dr Abdullah’s remarks come close on the heels of the fiery interview of his party’s Lok Sabha member from Srinagar Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi who took on the Lieutenant Governor for allegedly “running a parallel government to undermine the Chief Minister’s office”.

“The LG is running a parallel government…. He is trying to discredit the elected government. He is trying to show every next day that he is the actual boss. One day the elected chief minister holds the meeting of administration, the LG calls for the same meeting the very next day,” Mehdi said in a recent interview.

He further added, “You have decisions by LG which undermine the mandate and authority of the Chief Minister’s office. You don’t have control over law and order, you don’t have control over bureaucracy and you can see that gap between the aspirations of the people and actual functioning of popular government which is being hurdled by LG and the way BJP government (at the Centre) is behaving..”

Asked whether Omar Abdullah was not in power despite being the Chief Minister, the NC Lok Sabha member said, “That’s how it looks like. It has been two months, the way UT (functioning) has been organized is confusing. There is no clarity over business rules. There is no clarity over the subject of what belongs to whom …The LG is taking call purposely on every other issue or every other subject on every day to undermine the authority of the elected government”.

Responding to a question whether LG was a more important person than Chief Minister in Jammu and Kashmir, Mehdi said, “That is how the BJP has designed the scheme of things in Jammu and Kashmir at the moment. That is how the state functions at the moment …that is how the BJP pushes the things in Jammu and Kashmir. At many times, I would say, the popular government is overruled by the Lieutenant Governor”.

On January 2,
Chief Minister Omar while reacting to a query over the hybrid model of governance in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir had said while there have been “differences of opinion on some issues”, there was no confrontation with the Raj Bhawan.
In December last, the ruling NC had categorically denied any friction between the Omar Abdullah government and the Raj Bhawan, saying “those talking of a tussle between the government and the Lieutenant Governor are trying to create problems”. At the same time, the party also believed that a “dual power system” should not exist.

Updated On 1/10/2025 2:18:14 AM