Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah on Monday touched a raw nerve by wondering whether Jammuites have to stay content with small jobs while outsiders pocket the top positions in the government.

Farooq also said that it was because of his father Sheikh Abdullah and his National Conference that Jammu and Kashmir became part of India as the last Dogra Maharaja Hari Singh wanted it to remain an independent kingdom.

“Where are the jobs for Jammu men today? There was a job somewhere and a man from Kerala got it. Are our men idiots? Do we have to get people from outside for jobs in the police force? Are our men donkeys that they cannot become DGP, IG or superintendent of police? Should they always be sepoys?” Farooq said in Jammu’s Nagrota.

“You have a university here. Isn’t there any talented man here to be its vice-chancellor? He too has to be from outside?” he added.

Most of the top brass in Jammu and Kashmir are non-locals.

“Why did the Maharaja (last Dogra ruler Hari Singh) choose to have a secretariat for six months here (Jammu) and six months there (Srinagar)? It is because when it is winter there (in Kashmir), people will come here to shop (and vice versa),” he said. “With one stroke of the pen, the practice was struck down. Go to Raghunath Bazar (the main bazar in Jammu) or other places, shopkeepers are sitting idle there.”