‘What do they think of themselves’: Bureaucrats missing from J&K Assembly, MLAs join forces in outrage

“They think that idle people are sitting here,” Gurezi said, appealing to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to initiate action against the bureaucrats. “They should come to the House,” he said, adding that the CM should issue them a notice. “Do they think they are above the CM and the House? What do they think of themselves? They are government servants, while we are public representatives,” he said.

Joining the issue, all BJP legislators stood in protest against the absence of bureaucrats. Other MLAs on the treasury and opposition benches, including those from the NC, Congress, PDP and Independents, also stood up in protest.

BJP’s Sham Lal Sharma, referring to the rulebook governing the conduct of business in the Legislative Assembly, said it mandates the presence of the administrative secretaries of the departments whose questions are to be taken up by members. He suggested that the Speaker defer the business of any department whose officers are found absent from the gallery.

Pawan Gupta, another BJP MLA, questioned the absence of bureaucrats. “The executive is responsible to the legislature,” he pointed out, asking, “Why are they not coming to the House…why are they absent?”

In an interview with The Indian Express in October last year, Abdullah had spoken about the challenge of managing governance without full control over the bureaucracy. “It really depends on the mindset of officials. Some use it to their advantage by playing the Raj Bhawan against the elected government and vice versa. Some unfortunately get stuck in the middle… I honestly don’t envy (them). This brings me back to the point that this is a truly inefficient way of working… Can you imagine if somebody told the Honourable PM that you run India, but you won’t decide who your Cabinet Secretary, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, or other officers are?”