The State Coalition Government will certainly discuss in depth the reasons for its unprecedented debacle in the parliamentary elections. This is generally what every loosing party does. From a longer perspective, in democracy, loosing and winning are not permanent features. As the electorate matures, it reserves its discretion of evaluating the ruling or the opposition party on their merit and performance. Since election after every five years is a phenomenon depending on the performance and delivery of the ruling party, therefore, its victory or defeat also is a phenomenon in the history of our democracy.
However, the fact is that usually one becomes wiser after the event. Democracy enjoins collective responsibility upon the stakeholders. And when the causes of debacle are discussed freely, there should be no scope for levelling any charge against individuals. If it is a success, it is collective success and if it is a failure, it is collective failure. The most important thing is to lay finger at the precise malaise and then find a remedy so that the mistakes are not repeated. Democracy is the mechanism of trial and error for any party big or small. A party that looses in the husting has better chances of reforming itself and bringing it closer to the people. It has generally been seen that the foremost cause of debacle for any party is weakening of its connection with the masses of people. We are reminded that once during the heyday of Nehru’s premiership a debate ensued about whether the party chief should be part of the Government if it is called upon to form the one or that he should not be part of the Government. We think that leaders at that time were conscious that it was necessary to remain close and connected to the people once the party forms the Government.
This is generalization of the philosophy behind public relationship of political leaders. Now that a situation has shaped, and the coalition has been called upon to do some serious introspection, the party and the Government will naturally begin to take corrective measures. It is in this background that the Cabinet has taken some constructive decisions to send a message across that the Government realizes the importance of remaining connected with the people by removing their difficulties and complaints. One step taken by the CM is ordering lifting of ban on SMS. The feedback received by the CM from party cadres is that owing to the ban that had been imposed during the disturbances in 2010, something like disconnect ensued between the party leadership and the cadres as well as the masses of people. If imposing ban on SMS was found unavoidable in 2010, the impact should have been evaluated every three months. It was the responsibility of officials concerned to apprise the CM from time to time about the impact of the ban and analyze its positive as well as negative impact. They did not do it and the party had to bear the brunt.
Another corrective step taken by the Cabinet on the behest of the Chief Minister is that of scrapping the existing recruitment policy according to which the basic stipend (fixed salary grades) was to be provided to the persons employed in various Government departments for first five years.
As we know in J&K, State is the largest employer and lakhs of vacancies have been filled during the running tenure of the present Government. But the policy of fixed salary grades has been a strong source of discouragement for these recruits. It is but natural that they take it as a source of discrimination between them and other state employees. Therefore, the Chief Minister has taken the initiative of doing away with the discriminatory order. Even in this case, the responsible circles among the bureaucracy should have drawn attention of CM to the anomaly and got it corrected before the damage was done. Chief Minister’s orders to the Finance Minister to work towards revocation of the existing order and return to the previous system especially for the Class II, Class IV and other lower categories will have tremendous impact on lakhs of families across the State. The question is this: if the Cabinet could feel that an unfair decision had been taken at some time in the past, it should have taken corrective steps at proper time. It makes a great difference for the party to take such decisions at their proper time rather than under pressure. While discussing the reasons for poor show in the parliamentary election, it has to be remembered that rapport with the masses of people has to be sustained one and not sporadic. In sustained relationship there emerges a sense of belonging and a sense of protection. People expect that taking a couple of decisions that have come in the news is not the end of the game. Before the Assembly elections begin next year, should we hope that most of the pending, incomplete or in the pipeline projects will be completed. The debacle should become a catalyst for the NC to gear up for assembly elections by proving that it is capable of providing good governance.
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