By; Syed Adnan
Respected Chief Minister
First of all, many congratulations to you and your party for the strident victory in the recent Assembly elections, which were held in J&K after a gap of 10 years. This in itself makes not only your victory significant, but also a momentous occasion to celebrate. In essence, people of Jammu and Kashmir who voted you to power also deserve congratulations for reposing their faith in the democratic process and voting with all wisdom and courage to ensure a single-party rule in the Union Territory. Having said this, the mandate that you secured brings with it a great responsibility with equally great expectations from the beleaguered people, who were waiting for a popular government to take reins of the erstwhile State and offer a succor to them.
I was particularly impressed by the way you went many miles extra in nominating a deputy chief minister from Jammu region to ensure that people there don’t feel left out in the UT’s new governance structure under your leadership. It certainly was a great gesture and a rewarding answer to voices expressing concern over lack of representation from Jammu region in the new government. Your magnanimous gesture reinforced the Jammu-Kashmir bonhomie and the need to respect it rising above political considerations. That having said, it is equally important to focus on the Kashmir Valley, where you secured the massive mandate with the sole intent to have the people’s aspirations addressed.
I happened to read the official press-release of the J&K Information Department regarding the Cabinet resolution adopted in the first Cabinet meet regarding restoration of Statehood to J&K. It read: “the restoration of statehood will be a beginning of a healing process”. It is this word ‘healing’ that caught my eye and made me write this open letter to you. Yes, healing is what should be the mantra of your government. Because healing is what people need the most. Because people are truly wounded—psychologically, if not physically.
For the last 10 years, people of J&K have endured a lot, sometimes way beyond their carrying capacity. Not that people didn’t experience the booming tourism seasons, years without any strikes, any street protests. Let’s give credit where it is due. The tourists did come in large numbers. There was peace on the streets. There were many development projects which were undertaken as well, like the Smart City project in Srinagar. But if anything has been missing, and continues to be missing—and which must be your priority—it is the psychological distress. And it is this psychological distress that needs your healing. And people across all walks of life have experienced this distress, and continue to do so. Therefore, it anything that has to be your priority, it is the healing of distress that has caught people, and made them dumbstruck psychologically.
Employees in particular need a special healing from your administration. Today, if any survey is conducted about the psychological state of our employees, I can say with a great degree of confidence that most employees would fall in the category of ‘poor’ to ‘very poor’. Teachers in schools, colleges and universities in particular haven’t been able to deliver to their best of abilities. Their creative ability and imagination has rusted as a result of this psychological distress, which they haven’t been able to express for all these years.
Teachers are pillars of nation-building. It is true that they cannot remain aloof from the journey to march towards progressive nation-building. But if their journey is made burdensome with distressing circulars threatening to terminate them for staying away from official events, it only impairs their march. It only makes them feel humiliated. Many would have wanted to apprise the honourable LG about this state of affairs, but probably the fear of reprisals never made them to do so. Alongside, the terminated employees need your healing. You have yourself said in many interviews that you would be revisiting the cases of terminations done unilaterally. It is high time to fulfill that promise, and ensure that innocent employees are reinstated because justice is the founding pillar of our great Constitution.
I was glad to see the issue of termination of employees forming part of election manifesto of all major political parties, including National Conference, PDP, Peoples Conference and others. They have not been heard as of now. Our country’s Constitution espouses the sacred ideals of justice for all, and injustice with none. It also espouses the ideal of ‘innocent until proven guilty’, which must form the mantra for your healing for the terminated employees. Any injustice done with any employee has to be course-corrected by the system, based on the rich ideals of the Constitution.
Children in schools, and outside schools, also need a healing. As a first measure, people made a passionate request to your honourable self to dispense with the March Session in schools, and your Government reciprocated. It would surely bring in a great sense of relief to all stakeholders, especially teachers, students and parents. The March Session is not serving any purpose, but is contrarily creating multiple problems vis-à-vis timely conduct of examinations and classes. For three months (December, January and February), children have nothing to do, not even the homework. The only thing they have to do is to wait for March to come and sit in the examination. By this time, they happened to have forgotten even their previous lessons. Ideally, children would enjoy vacations after their examinations would finish by the end of October, or mid-November. The same has to be restored as part of the ‘healing process’ that you have rightly carved out as mantra for your government’s working.
People from other walks of life also need your healing. Businessmen in particular needs your special attention. Small businesses need some financial handholding to re-lift their businesses and earn a decent livelihood. Many small businesses have closed in the last ten years owing to financial constraints. They need to be re-opened with some robust policy framed by the Government.
Overall, it is the ‘heal and restore’ that must form the bedrock of your government for next five years. It would be great to have a 100-day roadmap on governance outcomes, with clear timelines fixed. It would help a great deal in letting bureaucracy to pull up the socks and provide succor to the people. Besides, healing and restoring, it is Listening that has to be the mantra of your government. Local MLAs must listen to people. It is not always that they may help address all the problems in one go. But there is no reason why they shouldn’t listen to people’s grievances. That is the least that is expected from them.
I hope all small and big election promises that you made would be fulfilled in due course of time. People are anxious as well as impatient to see the results. And they are not to blame for it. It is the anxiety and impatience of 10 long years which is visible on everyone’s face. Therefore, their expectations to see tangible results on ground are not unfounded. I wish you all the best and hope to see you deliver on ground.
It is good to focus on und. Jammu, and ensure a balanced governance. But it is equally important to focus on your voters who have voted you to power in Kashmir. Kashmir needs your healing touch.
(NOTE: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Kashmir Dot Com, its editorial staff, or its affiliates. KDC does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of any claims made in this opinion piece.)
