The appointment of the retired IPS officer, Farooq Khan, as the 5th Advisor to the Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik on Saturday, 13 July, is an extraordinary political development for a variety of reasons.
It bears yet another tough message for the Valley’s militants and separatists who have spurned all the offers of reconciliation and dialogue from New Delhi in the last many years.
Among the five Advisors to the Governor, Farooq Khan alone wears the distinction of having been a member of the ruling BJP at the Centre.
A year after his retirement as an officer of the rank of Inspector General of Police, Khan had joined the BJP at the then Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s massive rally at Hiranagar, in Jammu’s Kathua district on 26 March 2014
Amit Shah Seen As Crucial To Farooq Khan’s Transfer to J&K
In the 1940s, Khan’s grandfather, Col Peer Mohammad, became the first President of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in Jammu and Kashmir, after retiring from the Maharaja’s Army. The family’s unparalleled links to the BJP’s ideological fountainhead earned Farooq Khan remarkable respect within the party’s top brass. He was appointed as national secretary with special responsibilities in the Northeast, besides being the national in-charge of BJP’s Minority Morcha. On 13 July 2016, the President of India appointed him as the Administrator for Lakshadweep.
While handling crucial political missions for the BJP, Khan became the party president, Amit Shah’s, confidante.
Inducted as the Union Home Minister in the Modi 2.0 cabinet, Amit Shah is perceived to be instrumental in Khan’s transfer from Lakshadweep to his home state of Jammu and Kashmir. His order of appointment was approved and issued on a holiday, as nobody in New Delhi listened to the reservations of a section of the bureaucracy. On the evening of Tuesday, 16 July, Khan joined as Advisor to the Governor.