The dismissal of the four government officials, which took place on Saturday, serves as another stern warning from the Government of Jammu and Kashmir that anyone pushing an anti-national agenda would not be tolerated within the ranks. The four officials include the third son of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Salahuddin, the wife of JKLF terrorist Bitta Karate, and two senior assistant professors of the University of Kashmir. Strange but true, from the start of the armed insurgency, a group of government officials in Jammu and Kashmir have been in the vanguard of the “azaadi” campaign. In 1986, Abdul Gani Bhat and other separatist activists were fired for their separatist ideologies and activism by the State’s then-governor, Jagmohan. Bhat established the Muslim United Front, the forerunner to the Hurriyat (MUF).
29 years later, one of the IAS officers was spotted serving wazwan to the guests at Yasin Malik’s walima while acting as India’s Chief Information Commissioner. Later, a senior retired officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF) was spotted praising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a fervent admirer of Pakistan, calling him his “father.” Jamaat-e-Islami-run schools were outlawed by Jagmohan, who nevertheless hired all of their teachers for government positions. Additionally, the J&K Government Employees Association was officially acknowledged as a constituent of the APHC when it was floated in 1993. For the following more than 20 years, it continued to support Pakistan’s, militants’, and separatists’ causes of “independence from India.”
However, during the PDP’s second term, which it ironically served in collaboration with the BJP, in 2015–18, the rank separatists seized the greatest amount of space in government institutions and services. In charge positions were activists and thinkers with ties to the Hurriyat and Jamaat-e-Islami. Ministers scrambled to use this brand as their PROs and assistants. During that time, a key figure in the 1990 labour unrest was appointed to the Cabinet as a Minister. For approximately 25 years, it was common to witness government employees supporting strikes and carrying out militants’ and the Hurriyat’s demands for a shutdown. They did, though, continue to receive their pay without the government raising any objections.
Therefore, Manoj Sinha amended the terms of Article 311 of the Indian Constitution as soon as he became the Lieutenant Governor in August 2020. The amendment gave the LG the authority to accept, devoid of investigation, the recommendations of a high-level government committee to remove government employees “in the interest of the security of the State.” In the past two years, more than 50 government employees, including those employed by government subsidiaries and businesses, have been let go. They included members of the university faculties, police officers, and educators from schools and colleges. Now slowly steadily the seperatism ecosystem of Jammu and Kashmir is breaking down and the circumstances at Jammu and Kashmir are becoming better.