Jammu: Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday accepted the resignation of former administrator Lakshadweep and retired IPS officer Farooq Khan from the post of Advisor to J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.
“This is to inform that your resignation from the post of Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir has been accepted by the competent authority with immediate effect,” read a brief MHA communiqué addressed to Khan.
Khan, one of the two Advisors to the J&K Lieutenant Governor, had submitted his resignation to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on March 20 to make a political foray. The development had come a day after the two-day visit of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah to J&K.
“Yes, resignation has been accepted. So there’s no element of suspense on this account. Let me see for some time I’ve had a very hectic life so far. Thus right now there is nothing very specific on cards. I’ve told them that I want to be among people, work in the political field. I’m in no hurry and I’ll take time to decide anything. Till then slowly and steadily, I’ll establish a connection with the public,” Khan told Greater Kashmir, when asked about his next ‘move’ following the acceptance of his resignation.
“Mentally I had always been a member of the BJP, the erstwhile Jan Sangh. So that’s only a formality of joining (back). It’s (BJP is) my family and I’ve come back to it,” he said, while replying to the query as to when he was going to rejoin BJP.
With regard to a question about deliberations with the party leadership vis-a-vis his next political assignment, his response was, “Well, leave that to us. Those (plans) we cannot discuss with the press or public. Such issues cannot be deliberated in public. Whenever those plans take shape, only then it will be appropriate for us to share them with the media or public. Then we will love to do that.”
How he envisions his role in the political realm, when he makes a foray there, responding to this query, the former Advisor stated, “I’m a foot-soldier of the party, a soldier of the Prime Minister. I’ve the privilege of joining the party formally at his hand in 2014. So I had conveyed to the worthy Prime Minister that time, when he was the prime-ministerial candidate, that – you’re getting a soldier for your party. And I continue to be that. “
Is he going to be the “CM(Chief-Minister)-face of the BJP in J&K in the ensuing assembly elections as is being speculated?
His answer to this direct question was also seemingly ‘direct.’
“No, no way. We’ve much better and very capable leaders in the J&K BJP. And I’m here only to work as a soldier of the party to ensure the victory of the party with the ultimate goal of having BJP’s government in the UT,” Khan said.
But will he contest in the upcoming elections? Faced with this query, he again came with a guarded reaction, “Well, as a disciplined soldier of the BJP, whatever the party will tell me to do, I’ll do that. Contesting the election has never been a priority for me. I’m only dedicating myself for the party’s work, in whatever role it chooses for me. I’m here to work and not for any position in the party.”
Khan, as the Advisor to LG was holding the portfolios of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, Social Welfare, Tribal Affairs, Labour and Employment, Youth Services and Sports, ARI and Trainings, Cooperative, Election, Haj & Auqaf, Agriculture Production & Farmers’ Welfare and Horticulture.
After Khan’s resignation, now the Lieutenant Governor is left with only Advisor R K Bhatnagar.