Azad gets former separatist leader, two others as advisors

In fact, these political appointments have become a new trend in the Congress-led coalition where former officers and politicians are accommodated in the CM’s Secretariat making a mockery of Azad’s landmark decision to limit the size of his Council of Ministers. Earlier, after the J-K Government replaced DGP Gopal Sharma with Kuldeep Khuda, the former was appointed as CM’s advisor till he took over as the Director General of the Sashastra Seema Bal.

Separatist leader and Democratic Freedom Party chief Shabir Shah said Ganai was once the Secretary of his party. “But he was dismissed from the basic membership of the party later,” he added.

Ganai, however, denied his association with the separatist outfit. “I was never a member of Shabir Shah’s party. But I was one of the founding members of Abdul Gani Lone’s Peoples Conference in 1980s,” Ganai claimed.

Ganai has been made the CM’s advisor for public grievances, while Gupta will advise him on political affairs. Azad already has an advisor for economic affairs while the two top army commanders are his advisors for security issues.