Hundred days of just being there!
After a long political haggling PDP and BJB decided for a political wedlock and under the leadership of Mufti Mohammad Syed the present coalition government of unlike political and ideological poles took oath on 1st March 2015.People of Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in Kashmir valley had high hopes from this change in guard. This government has completed its hundred days and such a short period is not enough to assess the accomplishments and failures of this government. But, such a short period is enough to lay firm foundations for efficient, honest and objective governance. In the backdrop of September 2014 floods the agenda for this government was well defined and they were supposed to be on job from the day one.
However, after three months of power, apparently, there is no sign of distinguished governance on the ground as expected by the people. Beyond wholesale transfer of bureaucracy, police personnel and dumping many in the cold-storage there is nothing noteworthy going on in the corridors of power. A sizeable number of people in Kashmir were initially averse to PDP’s alliance with BJP, but later most of the people reconciled with the fractured mandate scenario with a hope that like his earlier tenure Mufti Mohammad Syed and his team will deliver to the expectation of people and respect the aspirations of a common man. However, during the last hundred days there is very less activity on account of streamlining the administration that had gone haywire. Same old story seems to be recast in new wrapping of puffed up aspirations and hope with sycophancy ruling the roots and sycophants leading on the forefront. The proverbial, ‘old wine in new bottles’ is what our apparently revamped administration looks like. Like all earlier political dispensations the present setup also in its first hundred days badly suffered from ‘foot in mouth’ disease. From handling more sensitive Masarat Alam issue to so-called reinvigorated recruitment policy the advisors and managers failed to handle the situation and come up to the expectation of aam admi. This government should thank its stars and the hype people like us created about its efficiency and capability to deliver, otherwise bloopers committed during the last three months would have swept the whole dispensation.
It is an accepted fact that this coalition was a lesser evil chosen out of stinking political system and the heterogeneous alliance was accepted by one and all as a curative bitter pill against spiralling corruption, patronized nepotism and malicious injustice. So, there should be no illusion about this arrangement being on leased life from BJP as well as people’s conditional trust. But they are expected to deliver and supposed to respect the trust reposed in their union September floods apart, during last three months there is very less relief on financial, healthcare and infrastructure restoration front. Almost all key aspects of governance seem to be suffering from lethargy syndrome. The financial magic lamp seems to have lost its property of delivering anything anywhere as was claimed at the time of its discovery. Most of the new faces inducted in cabinet look like a lost lot, unaware of the fact that they are part of a tight political coalition.
The flip-flop political and bullying tactics of BJP has put the Mufti Syed government in a tight spot. They have put the wiliest politician of our political spectrum (Mufti Syed) in a situation of no return making this government a proverbial galay ki hadi which PDP can neither swallow nor can dare to discard. In this game initially BJP had nothing to lose, but at the end of the day if this hundred day experiment of errors proved to be the prototype of overall governance pattern then their political turf will not only start slipping but their ideological roots in certain pockets of the state will rot and the sapling of discordant politics they were expecting to grow into a big tree will wither away.
Like most of oppressed people I too am an optimist and of the opinion that this hundred day political and administrative sojourn of a repelling alliance was nothing but a bad dream and our hope and hype about this alliance and governance will come alive to our expectations. As in most despairing situations we are bound to remind ourselves of our teachings that ‘hopelessness is a big sin’ so, we should expect good of this government and comparatively better situation for the poor and the downtrodden.