‘For God’s sake, move the files’: Farooq Abdullah accuses Lt Governor of stalling governance in J&K

In a sharp rebuke of Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, National Conference president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah recently accused the L-G administration of deliberately holding up official work and obstructing governance in the Union Territory.

“He’s sitting over the files,” Abdullah told reporters in Jammu after the civil secretariat resumed functioning following the biannual Darbar Move. “I asked him, ‘how many times?’ I even told him one day — you demoted the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar. He said, ‘No, no, it has its autonomy.’ That was a complete lie.”

Visibly agitated, Abdullah added, “I beg of him, for God’s sake, move the files so that people can benefit.”

When asked whether he believed the Lieutenant Governor was preventing the elected government from functioning, Abdullah clarified that while Sinha could not stop the administration, he was “delaying things by sitting over the files.”

“He should be a friend of the people and the government. That’s what he’s there for,” the veteran leader said. “If the administration becomes an obstacle instead of a facilitator, how will progress be achieved?”

The remarks come shortly after Lt Governor Sinha’s pointed comment that the elected government must “stop using the absence of statehood as an excuse” for inaction. Speaking at the Union Territory’s Foundation Day event at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC), Sinha asserted that previous governments had “all the powers” necessary to function effectively and reiterated Home Minister Amit Shah’s assurance that Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood would be restored “at an appropriate time.”

Reacting to that assurance, Abdullah expressed hope that statehood would indeed be restored soon and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend relief to flood-affected people across the region.