LG-J&K Govt latest flashpoint: Holiday calendar skips Sheikh Abdullah birthday, Martyrs’ Day
The 2025 holiday calendar of the Jammu and Kashmir government’s administration department has become the latest flashpoint in the already tense relationship between the Raj Bhawan and the National Conference (NC)-led government in the Union Territory.
Following the move, the NC said it would reiterate its demand for J&K’s “statehood”, adding that “dual power centres cannot work anymore”.
In the official calendar, which was announced on Sunday, the J&K general administration department headed by IAS officer M Raju did not include December 5 and July 13 in the list of holidays.
While December 5 is the birth anniversary of NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, July 13 is commemorated as Martyrs’ Day in the Valley. The latter is observed to pay respects to 22 people, all of them Muslims, killed outside the Srinagar Central Jail during Maharaja Hari Singh’s rule on July 13, 1931.
Both these days were official holidays until the abrogation of J&K’s special status in 2019. They were dropped from the list of holidays by the Lieutenant Governor in 2020. While there have been no official holidays on these days in the last four years, there was hope that they would now be included in the list after the NC government took charge this October following the first election in J&K since 2014.
NC spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq said the move to exclude the two days was “reflective of the BJP’s disregard for the history of J&K and its democracy”. “It does not change or diminish the importance of leaders like Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah or the martyrs of July 13,” Sadiq added.
Going ahead, Sadiq said, the NC would “fight more aggressively for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir”. He added: “The dual power centres (from New Delhi and J&K) do not work anywhere… We hope there is no dual power centre. Also, given the mandate people have given to the ruling party (the NC), any dual power centre would be an injustice.”
Sources said that there was an expectation within the NC that “at least the birth anniversary of its founder Abdullah on December 5 would be marked as an official holiday”.
Earlier this month, NC general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar had appealed to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to include Abdullah’s birth anniversary in the list of official holidays.
This latest Raj Bhawan and NC tussle has once again put the spotlight on the UT’s “Transaction of Business Rules”. These were to be formed after an elected government took over the UT and were to determine and delineate the powers of the CM’s office and the LG’s office. However, they have not been formed.
This has led to confusion in the administrative sphere in J&K over what departments come under CM Abdullah’s domain versus what are under LG Manoj Sinha’s purview.
In hope that statehood would be returned to J&K, the Omar Abdullah government has avoided any confrontation with the Raj Bhawan. But with the LG’s office seemingly taking control of more departments, a confrontation in the coming months is expected to be inevitable.
Sources in the NC admitted there is “no clarity about the jurisdiction of the Raj Bhawan and the elected government”.
“There are multiple issues. There are departments which are clearly under the CM but are headed by an IAS officer. The IAS officers are under the control of LG and one does not know whether they should follow the order of the CM or the Governor,” an NC leader told The Indian Express.
“The return of complete statehood seems to be the only solution to this problem. Otherwise, we are going to see such confrontations in the coming days,” the leader added. Source
