Srinagar, Oct 24: Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference president Sajjad Lone on Saturday criticised Chief Minister Omar Abdullah over his remarks to party MLAs regarding demands for ministerial berths, saying the comments amounted to “public humiliation” and belittled the political class.
In a post on X, Lone said he watched the Chief Minister speaking to the media after meeting Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and described his remarks as “contemptuous and disdainful.”
“I honestly can’t believe that these MLAs are comfortable with such belittling and humiliating remarks,” Lone said, adding that if the Chief Minister was unable to accommodate the legislators in the cabinet, they could be spared “public humiliation.”
Lone acknowledged that the matter concerned internal party affairs and said he perhaps should not have commented, but argued that such remarks could have a wider impact.
“There is always a spillover. You may direct the derision at your own members but it invariably belittles the political class,” he said.
He questioned how elected representatives could face their constituents when they were allegedly being treated as “unworthy and incapable school boys.”
Referring to author Tasha Eurich’s work on self-awareness, Lone said someone “desperately needs to read” her book and added that “somebody is certainly self-deluded.”
Quoting Eurich, he wrote: “The least competent people are usually the most confident in their abilities.”
Lone also criticised elected MLAs for what he described as accepting humiliation, saying they appeared to “act like bonded labour” and were “immune to humiliation.”
“Spare the political class from this belittlement. We deserve better,” he said.
