A revamped administrative and police setup will aid and assist Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra to discharge his duties in the wake of the Governor's Rule imposed in the state.
The process has began with two key officials being placed at the disposal of the governor on two crucial fronts—law and order and administration. While retired IPS officer Vijay Kumar will advice the governor on security and law and order matters, former J&K chief secretary B.B. Vyas will advice him on administrative matters.
''I am going to assist the governor. I will go there and work with various stakeholders in the security establishment and my colleagues. It will be too early for me to comment on the situation right now,” Kumar told THE WEEK.
Kumar will be travelling to the valley on Friday to take up his new assignment and assess the security situation. His appointment gains significance given his vast experience in counter insurgency operations and the fact that he was serving as a senior security advisor in the home ministry. This is expected to facilitate greater coordination in strategic deployment of Central armed police forces in the security grid in the valley. Known as an anti-Naxal expert, Kumar was heading the CRPF before he was asked to advice the home ministry on counter Naxalism matters.
Vyas, incidentally, had been given an extension for a year as chief secretary beginning from June 1 on the request of the Mehbooba Mufti government. However, the Centre felt that his administrative acumen and close association with PDP leaders, built during his tenure as chief secretary, may help him in discharging the role of an advisor to the governor on administrative matters. It would also send a message to the former alliance partner that the government is not trying to disturb the existing set-up too much and is ready to keep everyone's concerns in mind. Meanwhile, B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, a Chhattisgarh cadre IAS officer, replaced Vyas as chief secretary.
Meanwhile, Vohra is expected to hold a review meeting as soon as his advisors have taken up their new assignments, where arrangements for the Amarnath yatra are expected to gain prominence. Vohra has, to his advantage, the image of a non-army, non-police governor for the state fraught with militancy. His experience as J&K interlocutor during the Vajpayee regime before he first became governor in 2008 is expected to come in handy now when he handles the affairs of the state at this critical juncture.
The BJP will be watching closely. After the breakup, the saffron party is trying its best to pin the blame on the PDP. Politically, the BJP does not have much to lose within the state, except for the three Lok Sabha seats in the valley, which in any case it would not have won. The party, however, has to show tangible action on the ground to justify its decision for Governor's Rule.
"A lot of initiatives happened on the political side. We tried our best to address the separatist elements and bring Jammu and Kashmir as a single state. We lacked in big way in that aspect. On the development front, despite the Centre's Rs 80,000 crore package for the state, little attention was paid in Kashmir valley, Jammu region and Ladakh to some extent," BJP general secretary Ram Madhav said.
Madhav had played the role of an interlocutor from the BJP side for stitching an alliance with the PDP.
"We will work for the betterment of the state. We had a four-pronged strategy; hot pursuit against terrorists that will continue. We went after overground supporters through the legal mechanism, engaged with different people through interlocutors when we were in power. We will complete the unfinished developmental agenda with a proactive approach. These efforts will go on," Madhav added.