Former Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah has alleged that senior bureaucrats and advisors of the governor are looting Kashmir, Corruption and nepotism has crept into the upper ranks of the state’s administration. “Bach and every advisor who comes to Kashmir amasses huge wealth and assets by the time he leaves.” Earlier, ‘Abdullah had issued a statement demanding autonomy for Kashmir before elections could be held. Abdullah and his so-called National Conference remain India’s best bet in Kashmir because no other known leader or group is willing to follow what India wants in the state. His latest statement must come as an embarrassment to Delhi. India’s independent newspapers such as “The Pioneer” have nearly endorsed Farooq Abdullah’s allegations. Since all the top bureaucrats and advisors are appointed by the Indian prime minister personally under his own signatories, Faroogs allegation hits out directly Narasimha Rao and his coterie comprising the so-called “Prime Minister office” (P.M.O). Merely because it does not behave Farooq Abdullah to make the allegations because he himself when in power may have indulged in similar malpractices, is no reason to believe the allegations to be less weighty. India has perfected a system which encouraged corruption at the top echelons of power. This system operates with vengeance in the alienated regions such as Kashmir, Punjab, Assam and Andhra Pradesh. Earlier, it was the Nehru dynasty that had been leading the ruling class to run the corrupt system. Beneficiaries were Kashmiri and UP upper castes, Brahmans in particular. Now, in them have joined top bureaucrats, army, police and intelligence officers. Governors and their advisors are mainly drawn from them. A few weeks ago, sensational reports appeared in Indian media that several crores of rupees had been recovered from the Punjab governor Surinder Nath’s official residence soon after his death in a plane crash. The Indian government maintained complete silence. Subsequently, the high court of Punjab and Haryana issued a notice to the Indian and Punjab governments to apprise it of the correct facts of the recovery. From the Indian silence it appears that the news is substantially correct. If so, where from the money was raised by Surinder Nath? The obvious answer is: the golden egg for Nath was laid by the Punjab hen. Nath was not the first or the last corrupt governor drafted by India in Punjab. Nath was merely a cog in India’s wheel. Almost every advisor of governor looted Punjab. The police broke all records in amassing wealth. All this constitutes a new kind of imperialism. India’s elite wants Kashmir, Punjab, Assam, Himachal Pradesh and other states to be retained as cash cows so that the system of corruption and nepotism has a free run, thus the states like Punjab are the double victims of India’s loot. On one side are men like Nath and on the other are the states like Haryana and Rajasthan which are allowed to loot Punjab’s natural resources. Kashmir is, in a way, lucky that its natural resources are not being allowed to be looted to that extent. If movements for autonomy are sweeping the Indian subcontinent, the reasons are not far from view. The people are trying everywhere to resist the Indian imperial looting. Even states like Orissa have been threatening to leave the Indian union if the loot by Delhi of its natural resources is not stopped.
Thus Farooq Abdullah’s statement cannot be viewed in isolation, it is a part of the bigger Indian reality.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 2, 1994
