Outlook English - Print Subscribers Copy Outlook English, 19 March 2018 | Page 21
DI RTY L INEN
by Naseer Ganai in Srinagar
M
AHATMA Gandhi often used
to quote the Vedantic thou
ght of Vasudhaiva Kutumba
kam that envisioned the ent
ire mankind as one family.
Seventeen years after his
death in 1948, up north of a divided
India, Jammu and Kashmir got its
Khadi, Village and Industries Board. A
statutory body that strives to nurture
village artisans, the KVIB conceptu
ally sustains the lofty movement the
apostle of non-violence had begun in
1918. A century later, the KVIB in this
border-state is weaving a fabric soiled
by widespread allegations of corrup
tion steeped in nepotism.
The Khadi board in J&K has spun a
GETTY IMAGES
contorted interpretation to the Upani
shad line that had always inspired the
Father of the Nation. Of late, the KVIB is
among the state’s enterprises being peo
pled by next of kin of chief minister
Mehbooba Mufti. With every passing day,
it’s all about harmonising the household—
in a spirit antithetical to the Mahatma’s.
In fact, till last month, the KVIB has
been largely unfamiliar to many in J&K.
Public outcry grows over a
Then, on February 20, the board came up
with a list of candidates that it had just ‘job-giving clique’ around CM
recruited for various positions. That
opened the Pandora’s Box for the ruling cousin Syed Aroot Madni, who is son of
president
PDP, what with the KVIB being accused the PDP’s powerful vice-
of flouting rules to accommodate a close Sartaj Madni.
The Opposition says he doesn’t have
relation of the CM and other relatives of
the qualification required for the job.
the party’s leaders.
To be sure, the state’s 1965-founded The National Conference (NC) also
KVIB hasn’t been in the best of shape for came out with a list of children of lead
ers of the ruling PDP-BJP
half-a-decade now. The
coalition selected to the
latest Economic Sur
vey
Integrated Child Develop
shows a slide in the
ment Scheme and other
board’s sales as well as job
departments besides the
generation at the grass
Jammu and Kashmir Bank.
roots since 2014. Yet, the
It acc
used Mehbooba’s
KVIB, tasked with the
minister-brother Tassa
promotion of khadi and
duq Mufti, who holds the
other village industries,
tourism portfolio, of ask
has put no bar on one
ing for a bribe from a sen
process: recruitment.
S. Aroot Madni, ior official. NC state
Sixteen months ago, the
spokesperson
Junaid
KVIB had advertised app who is among
Azim Mattu alleges he has
lications for 34 posts. the recruits to
got the tape of a telephone
This January, it con Khadi board,
talk, where another “very
ducted the interviews is a cousin of
senior bur
eaucrat” di
after a written examina
rectly implicates “the
tion by an external agency. Mehbooba and
CM’s brother” in a multi
Among those selected was son of the PDP
Mehbooba’s 37-year-old vice-president. crore scam.
WOOF OF
NEPOTISM
Aroot’s selection has invited criticism
also from the candidates who didn’t clear
the job interview. They allege foul play,
citing that 18 candidates were shortlisted
for the single post, against the set norm
of 3:1 or 5:1. The mark-allocation model
for the exam segments (test, interview
and job experience) was tweaked, they
claim. As criticism surged amid a spurt in
youth unemployment, the government
has promised a high-level inquiry. The
board denies malpractice. The proceed
ings were “impartial”, according to KVIB
vice-chairman Peerzada Mansoor, who is
general secretary of the PDP, which came
into the power three years ago to provide
J&K people a “political healing touch”
and corruption-free administration.
Today, a chunk of the state’s 27 PSUs are
sick, and smack of cronyism. PDP candi
dates, defeated in polls, run the show as
vice-chairmen: Rafi Ahmad Mir (J&K
Tourism Development Corporation) and
Nizam-ud-Din Bhat (Handloom Deve
lopment Corporation). The BJP’s Khalid
Jehangir is vice-chairman of J&K Proje
cts Construction Corporation.
The NC alleges the ruling party is “eff
ectively run, as expected” by the families
of the CM and her uncle along with a few
power-brokers close to them. “These are
experts in corruption with insignificant
political credentials and credibility,” says
Mattu. “They decide on big projects,
high-level transfe rs, allotment of permis
sions for buildings as well as fudging of
recruitment processes. This entire nexus
has now completely taken over the party.”
Adds former MP Tariq Hameed Karra,
now with the Congress: “The PDP is
today doing everything it opposed once.”
The PDP’s Naeem Akhtar, who is gov
ernment spokesman, says the NC had
during Farooq Abdullah’s CM tenure
made over a lakh back-door recruit
ments from 1996 to 2002, while his son
Omar also created new designations in
the upper echelons of the government.
Akhtar’s party colleague, PDP youth
leader Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra, says
tongue-in-cheek that it is “good to see
youth showing interest in transparency”
over job recruitment. “It only strengths
faith in system and expectations on
leadership,” he adds.
All the same, the PDP has also leaders
who are worried about the party’s image.
“Whether or not the allegations get pro
ven, they hint at poor public perception,”
says a functionary of the ruling party. O
19 March 2018 OUTLOOK 21