Blaming coalition politics for corruption illogical, says Mufti

Omar seems to be offering a license to politicians and civil servants by justifying corruption on the pretext of coalition politics, said Peoples Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed on Sunday.

He was reacting to chief minister Omar Abdullah’s statement on Saturday that it was impossible to eradicate corruption in a coalition government.

“It is not just displaying signs of surrender on anti-corruption front but it amounts to creating a space within the political system for wrong doing and immunity against malpractices,” Mufti said while addressing a public meeting in Baramulla district.

He said blaming corruption on coalition politics is without logic as there have been good examples of coalition governments providing clean administration.

“Even in Jammu and Kashmir, the previous PDP-Congress coalition had scripted a success story in administration inspite of very difficult circumstances at a time when militancy was still on and the political system had just started reasserting itself,” he claimed.

Mufti, a former CM of J&K, claimed the present government has virtually demolished all anti-corruption agencies ‘by initially delaying their constitution and later diluting their jurisdiction’.

“It was for the chief minister  as the leader of coalition to set examples of probity by submitting to scrutiny by institutions like State Accountability Commission. Instead of doing that the chief minister  stopped the proceeding against him by getting a stay order from the court on technical reasons,” he said.

“Similarly, the rules governing the State Information Commission were diluted to make the commission ineffective which virtually takes away the right to information which had been secured by the people of state after a long delay. The state vigilance commission and vigilance department are completely defunct for the last four years,” Mufti added.