Omar vs LG: Transfers Trigger Power Struggle Over Bureaucratic Control in J&K

The transfers reestablish the LG’s authority over the influential Revenue department, which concerns land in J&K.

The LG's move has further undermined the reputation of CM Omar Abdullah and with him, the NC government in J&K.

(Photo: Vibhushita Singh / The Quint)

While the rest of the country was gripped by the spectacle around the passing of the Waqf Amendment Bill, a political crisis was brewing in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) after the Centre-appointed Lieutenant Governor (LG) Manoj Sinha cleared the transfers of 48 middle-rung J&K Administrative Service (JKAS) officers in the Union Territory.

Last year, the Union Home Ministry amended the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019—the law which split the erstwhile J&K State into a UT—to further grant powers to LG over matters concerning police, public order, All India Services, Anti-Corruption Bureau, appointment of the UT’s legal team and more. But the powers to be enjoyed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the Cabinet, the Ministers, and Administrative Secretaries were yet to be decided. It was the demotion of J&K into a UT that occasioned such a redefinition of powers. To this end, the J&K Cabinet had approved the new ‘Business Rules’ last month, which are currently awaiting clearance by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Under the interim arrangement, however, it was the CM who was supposed to take the call on the repostings of JKAS cadre, while the LG would exercise similar authority in relation to the transfers and postings of the IAS cadre.

There were some attempts previously, which ignited apprehensions over the nature of power-sharing arrangements between the two authorities in J&K. One case involved the transfer of one JKAS officer in Jammu, while the second case originated from a dispute over the continuation of the region’s advocate general.

But back then, it was easy to dismiss them as trivial matters given the larger purpose to which the newly elected administration had sworn itself: the restoration of statehood.

Brewing Conflict Over Transfers and Turf

The 3 April move counts among the boldest measures yet since the October 2024 Assembly polls, which is going to test the J&K government's patience.

The transfers also reestablish the LG’s, and by extension the Central government’s, authority over the influential Revenue department, which concerns land in J&K. The issue of land acquisition by the non-locals is already a hot-button topic in the region. 

To add to the political drama, CM Omar Abdullah had even directed J&K’s Chief Secretary to rescind the LG's order, which he refused. Now the NC-led alliance, which includes the Congress, has passed a resolution denouncing what they termed as the “encroachment” on LG’s behalf.

The language that the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC) has invoked is itself very telling.

Tanvir Sadiq, a senior NC leader, appeared to warn that this was the “last time” they were appealing to the LG, urging him to “respect the mandate and will of the people.” Otherwise, he continued, “we will not hesitate to raise our voice against any unjust or unilateral decisions.”

Statehood Delays Fuel Wider Crisis

The development has come at a time when Centre’s prevarication on the promise of returning statehood to J&K is already aggravating the political crises in the region.

Last month, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah further reinforced the ambiguity around the matter when he qualified his commitment on statehood with a caveat that he doesn’t need to announce such decisions on “public forums.”

To be sure, the true source of Omar’s ordeal is just that: the lack of statehood. The UT model of J&K—complemented by the  J&K Reorganisation Act—constitutes a bespoke legal system tailored to ensure the primacy of the BJP-led Centre, to which any local government is bound to remain subordinated in ways that other Indian States aren’t.  

It has helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) box Omar into a confrontation mode from the very beginning, a scenario that Omar was trying desperately to avoid. The BJP's calculation is that by stirring a hostile relationship with Omar, it could easily besiege him, and erode his political reputation. Just like it is currently doing.

The 40 day-long budget session in the J&K assembly was a demonstration of that.  

The Chaotic Budget Session 

Earlier last month, BJP leader Sunil Sharma’s comments calling the victims of the July 1931 killings in Srinagar as “traitors” sparked off a fracas inside the Assembly. The year 1931 saw Kashmir erupt into civil uprising against the Dogra monarchy, which ruled J&K until 1947, over its lack of democratic character and unfair policies. 

Around 22 Kashmiri Muslim protesters died during clashes with the Dogra forces on 13 July that year. The day was commemorated as Martyrs’ Day and observed with much pomp and ceremony in Kashmir, until the practice was abolished in 2019 by the Union government. Since the legacy of the Martyrs’ Day was tied more to NC’s founding members than any other political formation in Kashmir, it was natural that Omar would become the subject of public outrage in the Valley for his perceived pusillanimity over not taking BJP head-on. 

In another instance, the data tabled during the session also revealed how the reservation benefits in the UT were apportioned unfairly between the Hindu-dominated Jammu province and Muslim-dominated Kashmir. 

The beneficiaries under various categories—Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), Actual Line of Control (LAC), and International Border (IB)—were overwhelmingly concentrated in Jammu, accounting for 100 percent, 85.3 percent, 92.3 percent, 94.3 percent, and 551 candidates respectively. In stark contrast, Kashmir recorded corresponding figures of zero, 14.7 percent, 7.7 percent, 5.7 percent, and zero.

This has left hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri youth disillusioned, further fuelling public resentment over last year’s decision by the LG administration to expand reservations—at the expense of open-merit applicants, who make up 69 percent of J&K’s population.

The Much-Awaited Sub-committee Report

It was in response to angry protests by the ‘open-merit’ students that Abdullah announced a sub-committee in November to investigate the complaints. The committee’s much-anticipated report is expected to challenge the reservation regime introduced by the Modi government through three Parliamentary laws passed in December 2023.

Through these changes, the BJP government hopes to woo the ‘Pahari speaking people’ dominating the tribal belt of Poonch-Rajouri region, which was annexed to the Anantnag Parliamentary seat of Kashmir during the delimitation process in 2022. The move potentially increases the chances of the BJP winning at least one of the three Kashmir-based Lok Sabha seats in the future. 

That’s why it is a near-impossible task for Omar to dislodge the current arrangement until J&K continues to remain a UT. He can pass the bill if he wishes to, but it won’t become a law as long as the LG administration enjoys the effective veto over Assembly-led decisions. 

The last three days of the budget session in J&K were marked by shouting matches, with some legislators even coming to blows. The clash started after the Speaker of the house, who is an NC member, refused to allow an adjournment motion seeking debate on the Waqf Amendment Bill, which threatens to undermine the Muslim control over community institutions like Waqf.

The Kashmir-based legislators contend if a non-Muslim State like Tamil Nadu could debate and pass a resolution in its assembly against the bill, it will be a travesty if the J&K assembly—reflective of the electoral will of India’s only Muslim-majority region—wouldn’t. 

But Abdul Rahim Rather, the former NC Minister and the controversial Speaker, stonewalled the attempts by the legislators to do so, citing rules (sub-rules 7 and 9 of Rule 58 of the ‘Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business’) that prohibit him from permitting motions on matters that are sub-judice.  

This has further undermined the reputation of CM Omar and with him, the NC government. This is exactly what BJP desires. 

A Tenuous Path Ahead for NC and Omar

The NC had been taking all political insults by the BJP in its stride, hoping that its obedience will soften up the BJP’s attitude and coax the party into sharing a “working relationship” with it, part of which will involve an accelerated restoration of statehood and other benefits to the NC-led government.

But if Home Minister Amit Shah’s evasion on statehood, and the recent transfers of 48 JKAS officers is any indication, the NC is missing wood for the trees.

The BJP sees the NC’s landslide victory in 2024 assembly elections as nothing more than a huge political setback for itself, and it remains determined to fix this. 

A political vacuum resulting from NC’s humiliating decline and its erasure from the political space will be occupied, not by a single party, but by a disorganised mishmash of smaller Kashmir-based groups dominated by the BJP winning from Jammu.

The only clever exit for Omar would be to wait until the sub-committee report is out and try to barrel its recommendations in the form of a bill through the assembly when its next session begins. If BJP tries to obstruct the government, Omar should resign forthwith.   

That would not only shore-up his own prestige, but more crucially, it would wreck the chances of BJP of coming to power by itself or by mobilising some of its Kashmiri allies—at least electorally. 

(Shakir Mir is an independent journalist whose work delves into the intersection of conflict, politics, history and memory in J&K. He tweets at @shakirmir. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)