SACKING OF DEMAGOGUE

 

Professor at Kashmir University, was terminated from his University job for his terror link, having earlier association with JKLF. He not only orchestrated student protests on the university campuses against the killing of Burhan Wani on 8thJuly 2016, but was also said to have provoked students to indulge in anti-India protests. He is said to have managed to get his appointment without undergoing character verification which was mandatory before joining government service. As an activist of Jamiat-e-Islami, he was a close follower of the late S.A.S Gillani, Hurriyat leader. Prof Altaf Hussain was an office-bearer of the Kashmir University Teachers Association nearly for four years from 2006 onwards.

This is the tip of an iceberg. Kashmir University had been a hub of many subversive, pro-Pakistan and anti-India groups which indulged in disruptive activities in past decades on the university campus. In 1977-78, after the hanging of ZA.Bhutto, a Bhutto Memorial board was fixed in the Kashmir University building within the complex, Srinagar.

Other terminated employees were Mohd Maqbool Hajam, a government school teacher and Ghulam Rasool, a state police constable for their being over ground supporters of Hizbul Mujahideen. This was evident to signal how the state departments and services have been penetrated by the extremist radical and subversive elements for the last many decades? It should not be surprising to find such elements were deeply rooted within the system of the state administration.

 

A year back in April, 2021, more than a dozen state government employees were terminated for their links to terrorist outfits. The list included teachers, policemen, forest ranger and two sons of Yousuf Dar @ Syed Salla Ud Din, Chairman Jahadi Council, Pakistan. The process of terminating the services of those employees that were suspected to be involved in aiding and abetting the terrorists would continue till such elements entrenched in the state services are not weeded out. Although, there had been a voice of concern from Mirwaiz Omar, Chairman, Hurriyat Conference over the application of the draconian law under 311(2)(c) of the Constitution which forfeits the right to ask for the reason of sacking. Among the other sacked employees there were revenue, jail superintendent and educational senior officials also.

Late Sh. Jag Mohan as the Governor of the state also dismissed the eight state government employees which included three professors for their anti-India and secessionist propaganda in 1985. Prof Abdul Ghani Bhatt, Prof Ashraf Saraf, and Bashir Ahmed were frontline, pro-Pakistan proponents. Therefore, it corroborates that the state service departments were already infested with a sizable chunk of employees with a radicalised Islamic bent of mind. How long this scheme of terminating the employees from the state services would work out in cleaning out anti national elements? Once the influence of Ahile Haddis, thought was prominent in the valley. Within a certain period, Allah Walla Jamiat gained a foothold in the valley with the influx of Maulvis from mainland India. Jamiat e Islamiya had its base in the valley before independence but it was confined to a few committed cadre. But in post independence, the JEI party was active through their Islamic schools and Friday congregational addresses in mosques. Consequently, pockets of influence with significant followers in the valley were established in the state. During Mir Qasim's premiership the JEI party was registered as a political force in 1973. There is a thin line difference between Ahali e Hadis and Jamaat e Islamiya. That is in interpretation and implementation in the daily practice of Islam to be followed by its believers. Soon after 1972 and 1977 JEI spread its tentacles widely in all strata of the Kashmir Muslim society and in state administrative wings. For broadening JEI influence, various frontal committees like Islamic Study circle, Falah e Aam Trust, Iqbal Memorial trust and Muslim Welfare Society, Public Relief Trust, Muslim Education Trust and Cobi e Tulba were established in the valley from 1981-82 onwards.

Their target segments were Muslim intellectuals, academicians, Muslim students cum youth, running of Islamic schools under the guidance of JEI affiliated teachers, making available regular Islamic educational books to Muslim students and ensure jobs, scholarships and welfare schemes with the help of Saudi Arabia funds.

For the deeper reach of religious indoctrination within the Kashmiri society. the JEI party constituted various sub committees on the political wing, Legal wing Bookshop wing, Medical wing, Parliamentary wing and Propaganda wing, to monitor whether all policies extended in the Muslim majority state were in consonance with their Islamic jurisprudence. If it did not fit in with Islamic tenants, objections were raised at the political level by the JEI leadership either in public places or in the elected J&K Assembly.

 

This was the adoption of the proliferation of JEI ideology, Wahhabi thought implanted in the minds of the Muslim majority class. For propagating JEI ideology in the government serving, a trade union in form of J&K Employee Federation, was framed in 1980. The federation was headed by Abdul Hamid Kademi, a JEI ideologue who fled to Pakistan later. Prof Ashraf Saraf was nominated to head the federation Although trade unionism had already taken root in the valley among the various state department employees in the shape of J&K Low Paid Employee Federation and Teachers United Front to fight for better service conditions for the employees. Ideologically these federations were connected with the ruling dispensation of the time. But with successive years JEI and subversive pro-Pakistan minded groups enlarged their foothold in the valley and came out on the streets to challenge the state and its accession with India. The ruling dispensation from time to time always interpreted their extremism as a law and order problem instead of treating it as ideological defiance. These forces got easy access to state government jobs partly by nepotism, corruption or the ruling party tried to mollify such elements by absorbing them into jobs or allocating contractual favours or release some kind of doles from government funds.

State service employees in all three regions are roughly estimated to be around four lacs. After the nullification of Article 370 and 35A, the state was divided into two UTs, the Ladakh and Jammu Kashmir both headed by Lt Governor. Ladakh region has a fewer share of employees ratio comparatively in the erstwhile state about 15000 that was the reason for their cry against profuse discrimination against them. In the leftover two provinces of Jammu and Kashmir, Kashmiri was in occupation of major share ratio of employment. All vintage posting pivotal departments like the Revenue, the Secretariat, the Police and the Works department are with Kashmiris.

The state cadre employees came under the centre service rules with all perks and service benefits that are entitled to the rest of the employees of the central government all over India. Since the rules of the central service were applicable to the employees of Jammu and Kashmir the scoop of terminating the services of the employee with a shady background service under rule 311(2)(c) came into effect. Under this rule, the dismissed employee can't challenge one's termination in a court of law or ask for the cause of sacking. 

The fight is not in terminating the service of the employees. The fight is about how to neutralise the multi-pronged and multilevel programme of JEI to brainwash the public with Wahhabi Islam in the valley from 1970 onward? An impact-full, durable and feasible counter-narrative is to be put before the Kashmiris so that they get an ideologically overturn with the pragmatic and sustainable thought process to deter the onslaught of the radicalised Islamic phenomenon. This exercise is to be taken on the war footing before it sways other parts of the country.

DISCLAIMER: 

The views expressed in the Article above are Surinder Kaul  personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."

Courtesy:-    Surinder Kaul  and  Koshur Samachar 2022, July