The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday found fault with the appointment of advisors for different departments by the Jagan Reddy government and termed it a “dangerous affair”.

A division bench of Chief Justice Prashanth Kumar Mishra and Justice D.V.S.S. Somayajulu, taking up hearing of petitions challenging appointment of J. Srikanth as advisor for the Endowments Department and that of N. Chandrasekhar Reddy as advisor for employee welfare, wondered if an advisor would be appointed for employees’ TA and DA.

Advocate General S. Sriram submitted to the court that the government is appointing ‘qualified persons’ as advisors. He argued that the government is taking the advice of these persons before making final decisions.

It is noteworthy that during UPA-1, Sonia Gandhi had spearheaded the formation of NAC (National Advisory Council), an extra-constitutional body controlled by her that wielded unaccountable power over the PMO and cabinet led by PM Manmohan Singh. NAC was stuffed with dubious left-liberal activists with links to foreign-funded NGOs, who were behind some of the most disastrous anti-people and anti-Hindu legislations drafted by UPA like RTE and Communal Violence Bill.

Analysts believe that is this model of creating a parallel government, to bypass the checks and balances of existing constitutional structures, that the pro-Christian Jagan government appears to be adopting, especially to interfere in the workings of sensitive departments like HRCE that control Hindu religious institutions and charitable endowments.

Unlike the central government’s lateral entry program, which tries to inject talented domain experts into the jaded bureaucratic setup through a transparent hiring process, this system of backdoor appointments of ‘advisors’ (aka lackeys) is something that secular governments are using more and more.

The high court earlier this month had directed the state government to submit all records pertaining to the appointment of advisors to the government. The bench wondered how these advisors can advise better than the senior IAS officers.

It had also wondered how many advisors can be appointed and at what level. It posed questions about eligibility criteria and asked whether advisors can be appointed to departments.

Andhra Pradesh Brahmin Seva Sangha Samakhya spokesperson H.K. Rajasekhara Rao filed a PIL challenging appointment of Srikanth as advisor to the Endowments Department, terming it “extra-constitutional”. The counsel of the petitioner had argued that appointment of an advisor to a department is not traceable to any of the Articles in the Constitution.

The bench had asked the government what was his expertise that warranted his appointment as an advisor to the department. It had observed that having an advisor to a person like the Chief Minister is different from an advisor to a department. “Are we creating a new cadre outside the service cadre,” it asked.

In August last year, the court stayed the appointment of Srikanth but vacated the same later.

(With IANS inputs)