‘Moral code of conduct’ has been made mockery by Centre, alleges Mehbooba

Crucial institutions being helm with political patronage, not qualifications: Mehbooba

Reacting sharply to Haryana’s BJP government appointing Kamaldeep Bhandari, wife of the judge hearing the Kathua rape case, to an important statutory post on March 8, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday said the ‘Moral code of conduct’ has been reduced to a joke under the central government.

Under the central government , Ms Mehbooba alleged that institutions have been rendered powerless and are being exploited to serve the interests of BJP.

“The message to babus is loud & clear. Fall in line to favour us and enjoy perks plus privileges or else suffer,” Mehbooba, who was the chief minister in previous PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir said.

“Moral code of conduct has been reduced to a joke. Under central government, institutions have been rendered powerless & are being exploited to serve the interests of BJP. The message to babus is loud & clear. Fall in line to favour us & enjoy perks plus privileges or else suffer,” she wrote on micro-blogging site twitter.

Ms Mehbooba was reacting to reports that BJP government in Haryana appointed Mrs Bhandari, wife of the judge hearing the Kathua rape case — a politically sensitive issue for the party in Jammu region – as the new information commissioner to the Haryana State Information Commission, just two days before the model code of conduct kicked off on March 10.

Mrs Bhandari, is the wife of Dr Tejwinder Singh, the district and sessions judge, Pathankot, who has been hearing the sensitive Kathua rape case since July last year. The case was shifted from Jammu to Pathankot in Punjab by the Supreme Court.

A nine-year-old Bakerwal Muslim girl was gang raped and later murdered in Kathua, Jammu, in January last year. (UNI)